


Better Angels Of Our Nature

by Firebird_X



Series: Turn Right Timelines [2]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, No beta we die like cats, Queen Angella Rescue, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24282997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firebird_X/pseuds/Firebird_X
Summary: There aren't enough post-series Catra-rescues-Angella fics. QED. =^_^=Also, WARNING SEASON 5 SPOILERS.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Angella/Micah (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Series: Turn Right Timelines [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752985
Comments: 31
Kudos: 465





	1. No Queen Left Behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Catra learns what happened to Angella, she'll stop at nothing to make her terrible mistake right.

Catra wandered the camp in a daze, watching in amazement as the rebels packed up to return to Brightmoon. The overwhelming cheer, enough to drive her mad not long ago, put a reluctant smile on her face. _They’re crazy,_ she thought, her own presence the irrefutable proof of her position. She and Adora had split up for the first time since the end, She-Ra helping with the heaviest furnishings while Catra sorted through Entrapta’s most delicate gear. _Trusting me not to break stuff. They’re all crazy!_ In defiance of her objections, Catra placed Entrapta’s equipment in storage with precision and care.

“Glimmer, I don’t think this is a good idea,” King Micah said. Catra blinked and looked up.

“Don’t be silly, Dad!” Glimmer insisted, entering Entrapta’s tent and guiding her father in after by one hand. “Catra, this is my father, King Micah.” Micah’s eyes widened at the sight of her. Catra gulped and straightened, ears darting up. “Dad, this is Catra. She rescued me right out from under Horde Prime’s...” she giggled. “Well, hole where a nose should be.”

“Stars,” Micah breathed. “Those eyes...do you remember anything from before the Horde, Catra?”

Catra gulped. “No sir. Your, um, Majesty.”

Glimmer snickered behind one hand. “Are you seriously the Horde scum who almost won the war, like, five times?”

 _Seriously?_ Catra wonders, crushing old rage with strength to rival She-Ra’s. She needed that strength. “Didn’t think you’d miss her, Sparkles.”

Glimmer’s eyes widen, so much like her father’s, and her brain starts working again. “Don’t! I don’t. I just...you know, don’t mind you being smart and funny and cute. That’s all!”

The tension vanished, replaced by an almost enjoyable annoyance. “I. Am. Not. Cute!” Catra snapped, bristling.

Glimmer snickered. Again. “You should’ve seen yourself putting away Entrapta’s stuff. It was,” she put a fist on her chest and smirked, “ahem – _Adora_ –ble.”

Catra’s ears went flat. “I hate you.”

“Magicat,” Micah blurted. Both women looked at him, eyes widening. “You’re a magicat.” Catra’s jaw dropped. “You didn’t know, did you? Shadow Weaver...”

 _I am not. Gonna cry._ Catra swallowed, blinking back tears. “No. I...thank you, King Micah. She told me I could never learn magic.”

Micah scowled a fraction. “I’m sure she wanted you to believe that, but I’d wager my best grimoire that she only implied it.” Catra glanced away, trying to remember when Shadow Weaver had told her straight out. _“No talent for sorcery”...“too foolish and lazy”...“you wouldn’t last a week in Mystacor”..._ He sighed, straightened, and forced a smile. “I can recommend you to Mystacor when you return, if you like.”

“Really? Thank you!” Catra gasped. Then she smiled without mirth. “Heh, one of the few places I haven’t messed up. Besides, I always wanted to prove her wrong.”

Micah nodded. “I’ll speak to Casta after you leave. Glimmer, I’ll let you talk to your – friend.” He slipped his hand from Glimmer’s hand and disappeared before the princess – _no, queen,_ Catra remembered – could catch him.

“Wait. Dad!” Glimmer’s sigh was as explosive as ever. “I’m sorry about that,” she continued. “I really hoped he’d be okay with you. And, wow, magicat, huh?” Her smirk returned, though at a less absurd angle. “Melog picked the right partner.”

Catra nodded, mind wandering. “Hey, Sparkles, does he not like me for my general evil and horribleness, or did I do something specific?”

For a moment, Glimmer shook. Glimmer _was_ shook. Before Catra could do anything about it though, the queen turned a sad look on her. “You...you don’t know, do you?”

Catra’s blood froze. _Not princess. Queen._ “No. No, I can’t have.” She quivered, ears pivoting back and lashing tail gone bushy. “No one died at the Battle of Brightmoon. I was careful.” Glimmer gasped at that. “She wasn’t anywhere near our fights after that.” The look Glimmer gave her then – it wasn’t fury, or hatred, or judgment, it was sorrow. “Even you couldn’t forgive me for – for – no...”

The world blurred through tears Catra couldn’t even slow. “When you opened the portal,” Glimmer explained, and Catra felt stabbed, “the sword powered it. Someone had to pull it out, but they had to stay behind. Adora was going to, but...Mom...”

Catra ran, cursing herself a coward with every step. “Catra!” Glimmer cried.

 _“You made your choice. Now live with it!”_ Adora’s condemnation hunted Catra, inescapable. Etheria became a blur of green, She-Ra’s triumph all around them. Somehow, that made it hurt more. The words echoed in her skull until she thought it would explode. _I killed her,_ Catra finally realized, collapsing into a sobbing heap. _Glimmer’s mom. I...I..._ She threw back her head and screamed, wishing she’d died a thousand fights ago.

Melog appeared at her side, nuzzling her cheek. “They should have killed me,” Catra whispered.

”Catra!” Adora cried, Swift Wind soaring overhead. Catra looked up to discover night had fallen, then glanced at Melog. _I could disappear,_ she thought, curling around her companion. _Just...go away, and they could forget about me–_ “Catra, come back! Just talk to me! _Please!”_ Catra’s enhanced hearing picked up a single sob. “Please...”

With a sigh very near another sob, Catra stood, Melog glowing beside her. She-Ra leaped from Swift Wind, landing by Catra’s side, changing back and holding her tight. “Catra. Please. Stay,” Adora begged.

Catra might have been able to handle any other words. Those shattered her, and she wept into Adora’s shoulder. “How can they forgive me?” Catra asked between sobs. “How can you?”

“That’s who they are,” Adora explained. “Me...I love you.”

After a minute, they sat in the grass, still holding onto one another. Catra found the courage to look Adora in the eye. “Adora. Please. Tell me what happened.”

Adora swallowed. “Are...are you sure? You don’t have to...”

“Yes. I do,” Catra insisted, holding Adora’s hand. “I have to live with it.” Adora flinched.

Then Adora told her.

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Adora followed Catra into the camp, staring at her fiercely marching girlfriend in confusion. _What happened?_ the blonde wondered. _When I started explaining, Catra looked like she was going to her execution, but now – the only time I’ve ever seen her this determined was in the Heart._

Glimmer appeared beside them in an explosion of glitter. “Catra! Thank the Stars. Adora, is she okay?”

“No. I’m not,” Catra admitted. Adora and Glimmer shared a look of alarm. “But that’s okay. I don’t deserve to be.”

“Catra!” both princesses objected.

Bow ran up, panting. “What...the heck...is going...on?” he wheezed. “Your dad’s doing some kind of crazy tracking spell with seven circles. Aunt Casta can’t decide whether to stop him or take notes.”

“Tell him I’m back,” Catra said, running claws through her hair. “Where’s Entrapta?”

“Entrapta? She’s with Hordak, which is super-weird to say,” Bow explained.

Catra nodded. “Good. That’ll save me some time.” She marched towards Hordak’s tent, one of the few still standing. Melog followed.

Glimmer slapped her forehead. “Ugh. Adora, make her make sense!”

“Not a word, Adora,” Catra snapped, quickening her pace.

 _Huh?_ Adora stared after Catra. “How am I supposed to know what to say when I don’t have any idea what you’re doing?”

“Good,” Catra said, not slowing.

“It’s okay,” Bow said, almost jogging to catch up. “I think I know.”

That froze Catra solid. “Bow,” she whispered.

“I won’t say anything,” Bow agreed.

“Oh, come on!” Glimmer erupted, throwing her hands in the air.

“Glimmer.” Adora shuddered at Catra’s broken voice, a sound she’d hoped she would never hear again. “Please. Let me do this.”

Glimmer crossed her arms and glared. “Catra–”

Catra turned and fell to her knees. Adora’s eyes went wide enough to hurt. Glimmer gasped. “Please, Glimmer.” Catra looked shattered, ears and jaw quivering, eyes wavering, arms limp.

Glimmer sighed. “Fine. I’ll tell Dad to call off the Spell of Doom or whatever.” She vanished again.

Catra leaped to her feet and resumed her march on Hordak’s tent. If she hadn’t known Catra so well, Adora might have thought her begging an act. “Now will you tell me what’s going on?” Adora blurted.

“We’re almost there,” Catra said, indicating the tent with a wave. “I...don’t want to have to do this twice.

Adora sighed and relented. The trio reached Hordak’s tent without further drama. Hordak sighed while Entrapta cackled. Adora almost smiled. Catra knocked on the frame. “Entrapta? Can I come in?” Catra asked.

“Of course!” Entrapta exulted. They entered to find Hordak standing with his arms out, as if for a suit fitting, while Entrapta rebuilt his exoskeleton around him. “Shape-changing circuits need some work, but everything else seems to be operating efficiently. Your physiology appears restored, as well.” She rubbed her chin with one hair tendril. “I wonder if your exile was based on something other than scientific data.” Adora couldn’t say whether the scene was more sweet or creepy. _About even,_ she decided.

“Politics, probably,” Catra offered. Hordak raised an eyebrow. “I’d bet you were too...‘person-y’ for him.” Bow snickered. Adora elbowed him. Hordak, for his part, merely nodded. “Hey, Entrapta, I...really need your help with something.”

“If it’s science, I’m in!” Entrapta gushed.

Hordak groaned. “Can we learn Catra’s intent first, Entrapta? Do not rush to trust her,” he objected.

Catra glared at him. “You are literally the one person on Etheria who doesn’t get to say that,” she snapped. Adora gulped. Entrapta’s smile vanished, and she made a nervous sound. Hordak snorted and looked away. Catra sighed. “First part’s fair, though. I want to rescue Queen Angella.”

Adora’s jaw dropped. “What?!” she blurted.

Bow grinned. “Called it!”

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Three days later, Bow wasn’t grinning. Entrapta and Hordak were both asleep, snuggled in the curls of her hair in a way that would have been terrifying – well, three days ago. Bow yawned. Adora snored in the corner of the tent. Most of the others had returned to Brightmoon, though they got regular visits.

Catra was working on her fifth magic circle of the evening, pretending she had slept the night before. Melog mewed at her side, earning an ear-scritch, but she kept working. “Is there any point in telling you to get some rest?” Bow asked.

“No,” Catra replied with all the emotion of a Horde clone. She turned to Shadow Weaver’s spell book, flipped a few pages, and began a sixth magic circle. The one she’d been working on hung in the air with two others, each glowing a different color (silver, lavender, and red). She frowned. “This has to be it. ‘The gap between dimensions.’ Still not sure how that works. Why can’t I find anything?” She shook her head, beads of sweat and tears darting from her fur. “It’s fine. Like Entrapta said, there’s no Mara safeguards and no Despondos sinkhole. I can do this.”

Bow groaned and shook his head. “Catra, you became a sorceress in, like, two days. Castaspella is freaking out, and Shadow Weaver didn’t freak her out.” Catra froze. _Aargh!_ Bow shook his head. “Not like that! I mean, you’re picking up magic faster than King Micah, and he was the best student Mystacor ever had.”

“He was a kid,” Catra retorted, “I’m after one specific thing, and I have Melog.” She scratched Melog’s head, and the enormous cat purred. “She says thanks for the treats, by the way.”

“Aw. You’re welcome, Melog.” Bow crouched and gave Melog a head rub. The alien cat pushed into Bow’s hand, but returned her attention to Catra after a few moments. “Look, Catra, my point is, you’re doing amazing. Really, we should have thought of this weeks ago.”

Catra huffed and ran claws through her growing mane. “You were a little busy, dealing with a psycho magicat, then, y’know, saving the universe. Plus, it wasn’t safe before.” She turned her attention back to the book, blinking. Catra rubbed her eyes. “We couldn’t really do anything until now.” She yawned, Melog following suit.

Bow sighed again. “Catra, either Queen Angella is still alive, and you resting won’t hurt anything, or...or she’s not, and it still won’t hurt anything.”

Catra whirled on him. Bow gasped at the bags under her eyes, the droop of her ears, the matting of her fur. “You don’t know that!” she wailed, trembling. All three sleepers stirred. Catra clamped her hands over her mouth for a moment, then exhaled in relief when they remained asleep. “Maybe she dehydrates slowly, or her air supply could be running out, or the dimension gap drains magic, or – or something.” She grabbed Bow’s arms, all pretense of control vanishing as she wobbled in front of him. “I have to _save_ her, Bow!”

Bow hugged her. Catra held onto him, shaking and sniffling back tears. _She’s not even complaining. This is bad._ He pulled back and looked her in the eyes. “Catra, listen to me. If Angella is still alive, we’ll rescue her. But you need to rest. Please.” He turned her to look at Adora, who whimpered in her sleep and reached for something that wasn’t there. For someone. “If you won’t do it for me, do it for Adora.”

“Cheater,” Catra muttered. Bow gently nudged the magicat towards Adora, and when she stumbled, unable to resist, Catra relented and let Bow guide her to the mat. When the still-sleeping Adora threw an arm around Catra and welded them together, both stopped shaking. Catra smirked in spite of herself. “Means you’re...doing it right.”

Bow watched with a smile as Catra’s eyes fell closed. He thought about her fierce desperation as she mewed with gentle peace in Adora’s arms. _I can’t believe this is the same woman who fought so hard to beat us._ His smile grew as he headed towards his cot. _I guess that’s because...she isn’t really, any more._

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Eight days after the Battle of Etheria, Hordak watched as Entrapta pieced the final sections of the mini-portal together, Catra using her newfound telekinesis both to assist with construction and empower the device. _I should hate Catra, as she should me,_ Hordak mused. _Perhaps Entrapta is correct. There may be a place for me here after all – particularly if this project is successful._ Still, a question nagged at him. “Why have we not enlisted King Micah or Queen Glimmer in this endeavor? They are both powerful sorcerers, and have a vested interest in our success.”

Catra pointed at the modified portal device with a glowing hand. “I don’t want to give them hope then take it away, Right Hordak,” she explained. Entrapta giggled at the ‘nickname,’ so Hordak tolerated it. “I’ve done enough to them.”

“Besides, Castaspella’s checking our sorcery work, and she’s the queen of Mystacor,” Bow added, the boy’s odd enthusiasm eliciting faint smiles from the others.

“Seriously, you just thought of that question now?” Adora asked, grinning at him. “Even I asked about it, like, a week ago.”

Catra mumbled something about Adora “quipping at” Hordak before she did, then returned her focus to the portal device. _Hm. No matter how I – care for – Entrapta, it would likely be wise to find an expert in Etherian culture._ His eyes pivoted to Bow. _Later._ He turned his attention back to his readings. “Resonance match at 87%. I recommend a minimum safe match of 98%.”

“How close do we need to be to open the gateway?” Catra asked. Adora’s hands both formed fists.

”93%, but I agree with Hordak,” Entrapta insisted. “It’s too unstable to risk a jump in that range.”

“How about a scanner?” Catra continued, tail lashing. “Bow could fire one in on an arrow.”

“Huh. That might work,” Bow agreed, “and there’s no danger to anyone."

“Then let’s do it.” Gritting her teeth, Catra carved another magic circle in the air, Melog glowing as she did. The dimensional resonance jumped to 94% in three seconds. _Hm. Impressive._ The magicat shuddered and staggered in place.

“Catra!” Adora objected, rushing to hold her. “You’ve got to be more careful!”

Catra, oddly, snickered. “Look who’s talking.” Adora scowled.

Glimmer and Micah appeared in a burst of absurd sparkles. “Wait!” Glimmer blurted.

“Aah!” Catra, Bow, and Entrapta gasped as one. Bow rushed to lean on the portal device at an odd angle, while Entrapta tried to cover it with her hair. Hordak and Adora facepalmed in nearly-perfect synch. “Gli-Sparkles!” Catra babbled. “Just helping Entrapta with one of her experiments.” Her laugh was weak.

Micah half-smiled. “Catra, we’ve known what you’re planning for two days. Casta’s the best teacher Mystacor’s ever had, but she can’t keep a secret to save her life.”

“And Dad’s great with magic theory,” Glimmer added. “This is sweet, really, but we’ll be okay.”

Bow lowered his head. “It...wasn’t just her idea, Glimmer. I was worried too.”

“We’re losing resonance,” Hordak pointed out. “If we’re going to send a probe, we must do it now.”

“Activating portal!” Entrapta cheered, throwing the switch. The yawning void opened, naught save floating stone visible beyond.

Bow prepared an arrow while Catra shuffled to Glimmer’s side, appearing uncertain. “Glimmer? You...never answered, about...why don’t you hate me?”

Glimmer sighed, shrinking a centimeter. “I did for a while. It turned me into the jerk who blew off her friends and almost destroyed the world.” Her smile at Catra was...shy? “Then, y’know, you sacrificed yourself to rescue me. And got us home, helped us free Erelandia, and saved Adora. You’re a good friend when you give yourself a chance.” Her smile broadened. “Horde scum.”

Catra chuckled sadly as Bow fired. “Y’know, I have a nickname.”

“Huh? Oh, right, ‘Wildcat!’ It is kinda perfect for you,” Glimmer noted.

Catra swallowed. “You’re...not such a bad friend yourself, you know.”

“We have data!” Entrapta cheered. They all rushed to the wondrous scientist’s side. Hordak and Adora nearly bumped into each other, and the former conqueror realized she’d been listening to Catra as well. She blushed and looked away. “Hordak, is that a magic reading?”

Cursing himself for permitting social interaction to distract him, Hordak returned to his screen. “Yes, Entrapta. More than that – it is optical energy.”

“Light?” Micah breathed, wide eyes tinged with tears.

Catra and Glimmer hugged. “She’s alive!” they cheered as one.

“Yes, but I am detecting an increase in void fluctuation,” Hordak reported. _A reaction to reality’s presence,_ he realized. “The subject is weakening.”

“What?” Adora gasped, rushing to the portal.

“Contact appears to have caused pattern degradation,” Hordak explained.

“Will closing the portal help?” Catra asked, already climbing into her spacesuit. Entrapta clasped hands of flesh and hair.

Hordak glowered at the screen. “Unknown.”

“Then we’re out of time,” Catra said. “Micah, Glimmer, keep that gate open, whatever it takes. Adora, anchor me.”

“No! No, you’re not going without me!” Adora cried.

“Weren’t you paying attention? The gap is _eating magic_ now! It’s like anti-She-Ra in there! Everyone else here is magic, it has to be me!” Catra retorted. Melog whined

“And me,” Bow added, already halfway into his suit. “I’ll go too.” Catra bristled. “You’re already a sorceress, Catra. You should have backup.” She sighed, putting on her helmet in lieu of argument.

Hordak looked at Entrapta. “Sorry,” she said. “The First Ones tech in your exoskeleton is powered by magic. You shouldn’t go either.” 

Adora trembled. “Promise me you’ll be careful,” she pleaded, taking Catra’s hand.

Catra’s face moved through multiple expressions before settling on something Hordak could only describe as “gentle.” She cupped Adora’s cheek in one hand. “I promise.” She turned to Bow. “Let’s do this.”

Bow nodded as Entrapta typed with her hands and attached cables to their belts with her hair. Adora transformed into She-Ra and grabbed both cables. Then the pair leaped into the void.

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Catra shivered in the empty world, leaping from stone to stone with Bow at her side. Melog pulled most of her newfound magic out from her, but even with her meager new ability, she felt the place pulling life from her bones. “Hey, Catra, you okay?” Bow asked, putting a hand on her shoulder when she paused on a table-sized rock.

She grinned at him. “Yeah. Doing great. Just don’t call me cute.”

Bow frowned. “Catra, you were panting. The only person I’ve ever known with more stamina than you is Adora.” Her tail puffed out for a moment. Bow flinched. “Sorry, but you get my point, right? This place is hurting you.”

“It’s hurting Glimmer’s mom worse. I hated Shadow Weaver – I had the _right_ to hate Shadow Weaver – and losing her still tore me apart,” Catra explained. “We are _not_ losing Angella now, not when we’re so close!” Gritting her teeth, she leaped to a large platform above them. She froze and stared.

One of the few stories from Catra’s childhood that didn’t involve Adora revolved around Catra and Rogelio finding a butterfly in a spider web. Catra bragged to Ro that she’d watch the spider eat the butterfly, but as soon as he turned his back, horrified, she’d tried to free it.

Catra had been seven. She’d accidentally killed not only the butterfly, but the spider as well.

The moment she reached the platform, Catra saw Angella in a great storm ring, splayed out like the butterfly, caught in gray tendrils. The queen looked up, eyes shaking in terror. The tendrils – _Be honest, Catra, it’s webbing,_ she told herself – sealed Angella’s mouth shut, leaving her to shake her head and beg through whimpers. “I’m with the Alliance now!” Catra cried, pointing to Bow. “We’re here to bring you home!” She leaped again, just one stone away from the queen.

The corrupted half of Catra’s head peered out from the cloud funnel, one hand clawing towards the real thing. “hEeEy, cAaAtRa,” the thing said. Catra’s fur stood on end, suit or no suit, when two voices echoed in the distortion.

Bow turned to fire, but hesitated at the sight of Catra’s former self. “Catra? Was that other voice what I think it was?” he gasped, arrow wavering.

Then the rest of the torso emerged, and Catra recoiled. A Horde Prime made of toxic green fire was _wearing_ the shell of her corruption, with two left arms grasping the edge of Angella’s prison. “CaSt oUT tHe shAdOWs,” it mocked. “AlL beiNGs must SUFFer tO beCOMe PURE.” The rest of it rounded the stormcloud...with eight legs. Its lower half was that of an enormous spider.

Catra never blamed herself for screaming. The sight of Angella weeping and using one finger to point toward their gateway stiffened Catra’s spine. “Catra!” Bow called, firing a goop arrow at Spider-Prime. The glue burned away instantly. “What do we do?”

“You free Angella!” Catra ordered, crouching and punching her claws through her suit.

“What are you going to do?” Bow asked, staring.

“The one thing I’m good at,” Catra explained. Then she leaped at Spider-Prime, screaming and raking her old self – along with as much webbing as she could get her claws through.

“LITtLE SiSTEr,” Spider-Prime called, its voice becoming more like his, “WHy dO YoU STRUGgLE? YOU CANnOT WiN WIThOUT ShE-RA.”

“Will you shut _up?!”_ Catra howled, slashing wildly at the monster. A blow from one of its legs sent her sprawling into the web, where Bow was using a – buzzsaw arrow? – to cut Angella loose. “Bow! Rescue faster!” Spider-Prime skittered towards her, its legs leaving burn marks in its wake.

“I’m trying!” Bow objected.

“Catra! Resonance at 93.7% and dropping!” Entrapta warned. _Great. As if this fight wasn’t enough of a mess._ Catra pulled herself up on the webbing, getting a fraction more stuck. Angella shook her head again, crying. _She’s thin. Pale. We have to finish this fast._ Spider-Prime laughed and jabbed at her with one burning leg.

Catra smirked. _Finally._ She thrust out a perfect claw-hand strike into the hip joint, severing the leg. Spider-Prime screamed and recoiled, the leg falling into the web and burning it away. “Melog, less magic! Bow, grab the queen!”

She forced herself not to choke up when both partners obeyed without question. “Okay, now what?” Bow asked.

Catra braced herself, then stabbed her claws into the leg again. _Had worse,_ she insisted, pushing aside Shadow Weaver memories and the burning pain, then sliced Angella the rest of the way free.

Angella immediately ripped off the webbing on her mouth, wincing for a moment. “Leave me and go! That’s an order!”

Catra smirked at her. “Uh, you do know who I am, right?” she asked. “Bow, move!”

Bow fired a grapple arrow several rocks away and headed down towards the portal, one arm around Angella’s waist. “Catriska!” Angella cried.

Catra froze. _“Who was she, mama?” Catriska asked, squirming in her mother’s arms as she looked up at the statue. The heroine had eyes like hers..._

”Resonance at 93.5%,” Hordak reported.

Catra shook her head, driving off the alien memory. “I’m Catra! I’m the worst enemy the Alliance ever had! Now GO!” She turned to face Spider-Prime. It wasn’t smiling any longer, the dark-Catra parts burning away in Prime’s monstrous light.

“You’re Catriska of Halfmoon, the daughter of my husband’s dearest friend!” Angella insisted. Catra barely dodged another leg stabbing at her, grateful beyond measure that the way back was down. “And if I weren’t a coward, you wouldn’t have belonged to Shadow Weaver!”

For a moment, Angella’s confession tore up half-healed wounds, the old Catra threatening to leak out. _No,_ Catra told herself. “Coward? When every other princess ran away, you _were_ the Rebellion, _alone,_ for twelve years!” She leaped back again. “Adora! Get Bow and the queen _out_ of here!”

Catra’s retort stunned Angella so completely that Adora was able to pull them free before the queen could object again. The magicat indulged in a genuine smile. _We did it. Maybe now I can face them–_ Spider-Prime slashed at her with two more legs, then lashed out with gray webbing. _–but I kinda have to survive first!_ “Adora! Three meters – PULL!”

Her obsessive, determined love pulled Catra back within a centimeter of exact, yanking her away in time. Spider-Prime roared. “LITTLE SiSTER,” it snapped, her voice almost gone from the monster. “YOU WiLL NEVER BE FREE oF YOUR SiNS.”

“Catra, we’re at 93.2% – you’ve gotta get out!” Entrapta pleaded.

Catra remembered breaking. She could still feel the instant, in the Crimson Waste, when Adora told her about Shadow Weaver, and she thought she’d learned how stupid kindness was. _I was wasting it on the wrong person,_ she realized. No one moment could heal a lifetime of abuse and cruelty, but this – it felt like the exact opposite of that moment, like something precious had snapped back into place, something good, something _Catra,_ a part of her that was right even without Adora. “Four meters!” Catra shouted, and Adora pulled again. Once more, she evaded Spider-Prime by a whisker. “You’re right,” she admitted.

Spider-Prime froze, staring with too many eyes. “I’ll always have sent Angella here, always left Adora in that pit, always conquered Salineas. But I’ll always have done this, too.” She hopped back, falling under a swing from its burning, stolen claws. Catra smirked. “I’ll always have rescued Glimmer from you. I’ll always have made friends with Melog.” Spider-Prime roared again.

Her smirk melted into a gentle smile. “And I’ll always have told Adora that I love her. That’s what beat you, you know. Not a weapon, not an army, and definitely not sorcery. Love.” She reached into a pouch and held out her hand. Spider-Prime stared at the stick-figure drawing of Scorpia, Entrapta, and Catra holding hands. “You can change too, you know. Just go into this. We can find you a body if you stop trying to conquer the universe. No matter how deep this hole might be,” she said, waving at the nothing around them, “there’s always a way out. All you have to do is take the right hand.”

Catra’s smile died as Prime laughed, the last of her old self burning away. “‘THOUGH ALL IS REDUCED TO RUBBLE, PRIME SHALL RISE AGAIN.’ TELL SHE-RA THAT.”

Catra shook her head “Sorry. I don’t offer as many chances as Adora. NOW!”

Prime screamed as She-Ra pulled Catra from the void just as the gateway began to close. Catra’s smirk returned. “You miscalculated,” she said, watching Prime scramble impotently in the emptiness as the opening vanished.

The desperate hugs that consumed the magicat were so wonderful, even Catra couldn’t complain.

-SR- -SR- -SR-

“That. Was. Awesome!” Adora gushed, leading the train of rebel heroes marching along the Whispering Woods’ one trail.

The other princesses laughed as Catra facepalmed. “Put me back in,” she groaned.

“No,” Brightmoon’s royal family insisted as one. Adora’s heart felt like it would explode with joy at the growing laughter.

“‘You were the Rebellion for twelve years’? I’m putting that over the gates to Brightmoon,” Micah quipped.

Angella’s laughter froze in her throat. “Absolutely not!” she quailed. Glimmer laughed.

Scorpia turned heart-eyes on Catra. “You kept it,” she gushed.

“What? No! I just found it!” Catra objected. She looked away, tail lashing behind her. “Then...I kept it.” More laughter. Catra was as red as her old uniform.

“I can’t believe he fell for the ‘clumsy Catra’ bit,” Adora laughed, mimicking her claw-stab. “I mean, I never fell for that one.”

Catra looked down, hands twisting. Melog purred. “Y-you know you’re not really an idiot, right?” she muttered. Adora’s eyes bulged. _Did – did that just happen?_ she wondered.

Too overwhelmed to stop herself, Adora swooped Catra around Netossa-style to dip her into a kiss. She grinned at the dazed look Catra gave her afterwards. “I love you, you know.”

Catra blinked and started to nod – then froze again when they rounded the last corner and emerged before Brightmoon. She looked up and stared. Glimmer teleported over and hugged them both. “Welcome home,” Glimmer said.

Catra blinked back tears and smiled again. “Yeah. Home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two fics in three days WHAT MADNESS IS THIS
> 
> ...but I had to write this. I HAD TO.
> 
> Also, I use the same backstory for Catra and Shadow Weaver as in Turn Right. I even recycled a line from Princess of the Moon. This is also one of the timelines in that continuum, though it won't matter unless I get through Season 5 in that fic (so, probably not).


	2. Forever Healing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angella finds Catra before Micah's mural in eerie parallel to her first solitary meeting with Adora. It turns out that neither saving the universe nor fixing her worst mistake has healed all of Catra's wounds. Love will have to suffice in atonement's place.

Angella brushed a lock of hair out of Micah’s face, watching him sleep. She reveled in his peaceful expression, having heard by then of his nightmares and whimpered “Angie”s during the invasion. After hours of just him and Glimmer, then a few hours more of just _Micah,_ the newly-reinstated queen had insisted that he sleep

_In all honesty, it hadn’t taken long,_ she mused. He was still tired – years on Beast Island fighting to survive, then months fighting against (and then for) Horde Prime, had taken their toll. _He’s just so – careworn._ Angella let in her hatred for Shadow Weaver and Hordak, then tried to let it go. It was more successful than she expected. _All the same, a small part of me will probably still hate them when Hordak’s bones are dust._

Her mind wandered, for the first time since her family had made time for itself, back to Adora and Catra. _Castriska,_ whom Shadow Weaver had violated in more ways than Angella could have imagined in her nightmares. Catra, the most brilliant and determined foe the Rebellion had ever faced. Catra, who had literally saved the entire universe by climbing out of the pit of her grief and pain to admit her love at the end of all things. Catra, who had nearly died saving Angella herself.

(Catra, who pulled the lever where Shadow Weaver had held Glimmer’s hand and abused both children. _Let go,_ Angella commanded herself, but she still imagined pummelling Shadow Weaver flat.)

The queen wrote a quick note to Micah in case he woke to find her missing, and wandered the halls as she had on so many nights thinking him lost. _Hordak, not only defeated but an ally. Shadow Weaver, dead for good and all. The Stars, returned at last. You do have trouble with sudden change, Angella._ She paused when she realized where her feet were taking her. _Stars, I’m headed for his mural,_ Angella realized, chuckling. Even away from him, she sought her husband’s comfort. _I do believe it is time for me to return to my actual husband’s–_

“What am I doing here?” Catra muttered just before she came into view.

_In a few moments,_ Angella amended, well aware the coming conversation could take much longer. “That,” she offered gently – which didn’t stop Catra from leaping back and yelping – “is a rather broad question. Can you narrow it down, perhaps?”

“Y-Your Majesty!” Catra blurted, doing something Angella imagined was an attempt at a bow, yet also included a salute of some kind. It looked so familiar in its earnest clumsiness, the queen’s heart ached.

_Oh. Of course._ It was a near-exact replica of Adora’s attempt at etiquette when they had first run into each other before this very mural. “I did say that right, right? I mean – Bow coached me on titles, but not the...curtsying thing, since you’re supposed to do that in a dress or something? I–” Catra babbled.

“Commander Catra. Stop. _Breathe,”_ Angella commanded. Catra obeyed, her deep breath almost comical. Angella remembered threatening Adora during a similar encounter. _I will do better this time,_ she promised herself. “What is troubling you?”

Catra’s ears shot upright. “Me? I’m fine.” The last word stuck in the magicat’s throat for an instant. _Ah. A deflection too well worn to deceive her friends, but she hoped it might work with me._ “I’m just, y’know, not used to someplace this sparkly. I mean, I’ve never been to Brightmoon – i mean, inside,” she trailed off, eyes darting down, head lowering. “sorry.”

The last word, whispered as it was, echoed through the queen’s heart. “First, let me say that I accept your apology for all its implied...misjudgments.” Catra sighed, shaking her head. “That said. Micah determined, during the time you planned my rescue, that Shadow Weaver erased your memory of Halfmoon. Brightmoon law is clear that in any case where magic is used to tamper with the mind, any crimes committed by the victim are the responsibility of the sorceress.”

Catra stared, jaw slack for a moment. “But, wait, Shadow Weaver always bragged that she didn’t need mind control,” she objected.

“And yet she attempted the same thing with Adora,” Angella reminded her. “Catra, had you remembered a past of love and family, the Horde could not have turned you into the person you were for a time.”

“I was five! At the most!” Catra blurted. “I still did those things, _chose_ to do them, hurt Adora’s friends, hurt _Adora,_ I can’t, I can’t–” Catra’s knees buckled. Angella was grateful for experience in catching an exhausted Glimmer, holding the girl before she could collapse. “I...I found a letter.”

Angella helped Catra sit, leaning against the mural, then sat beside her. “I beg your pardon?”

Catra sighed. “A letter. From Adora. To me. I was looking for a snack.” Her smile looked broken, like a reflection of the Horde Prime...thing that had worn Catra’s folly. “When Adora found out Shadow Weaver liked cutting my rations as punishment, she turned into a stash fiend. She’d hide little slices of ration bar everywhere. She liked reminding me that I’d give her half of mine when she was sick.”

Angella kept her face carefully neutral. She imagined tearing Shadow Weaver’s mask off and pummeling her with it. _Unhealthy, that’s unhealthy,_ she told herself. “What did the letter say, Catra?”

“That she knew we were enemies now – then. That...we’d always be enemies. How much she missed the parts of me that weren’t horrible. That she...wouldn’t change anything she’d done, even if she could.” Catra hugged herself. “That’s the part that hurts the most. It just dragged out all the...messed-up, stupid, angry, _everything,_ inside me.”

“Have you talked to her about it?” Angella asked, rubbing circles in Catra’s back.

“She’s asleep,” Catra muttered. “Adora’s exhausted, it’s been nine days since the end and she still works herself half to death if I’m not paying attention.”

Angella offered the kindest smile she could muster. “And you have not?”

Catra huffed and looked away. “That was _different,”_ she insisted. “We had no idea how much time you had left. Besides, I was right, wasn’t I?” Angella raised an eyebrow. “You were helpless and alone with Horde Prime, for crying out loud.”

Angella briefly considered correcting Catra’s model of her experience in the gap-realm. _Later,_ she decided. “Time flowed differently there. To me, Horde Prime only had me bound for a few moments before your arrival,” she settled on instead. Catra relaxed a fraction. “Very well, you want to wait until Adora has rested. Fair enough.” Catra looked at her in surprise. _Has this child received so little respect for her own agency?_ Angella wondered. “Are you willing to talk to me about it?”

“You?” Catra blurted. “But you’re the queen! And...important!” She slapped her forehead. “Ugh, the stupid’s contagious. Look, I get that you’re grateful for the rescue, but it was my fault you were in there in the first place. I’m just– ” She lifted her head slightly, eyes sliding towards Adora’s door. “I’m such a coward,” she mumbled, slumping back down.

Angella couldn’t help smiling again. “‘Coward?’ Did you not sacrifice yourself to Horde Prime for my daughter? Or fight a First Ones monster, alone, to save Adora?” Catra’s blush grew with each reminder. “Or bare your heart to her to save the universe? Or risk everything after finding happiness at last to rescue one obsolete queen? Twelve years has nothing on your courage, Catriska.”

Catra blinked. “‘Obsolete?’ You know what, never mind. How long have you known who I am?” she asked.

“Since yesterday,” Angella replied, smile vanishing, “though I should have sooner. By the Stars, Shadow Weaver named you ‘Catra,’ It wasn’t exactly a Mer-Mystery.”

Catra’s mouth fell open, then closed. Angella chuckled, remembering Mermista’s father. _He was a handful. Or ten._ She remembered him wrestling with a squid to impress Mermista’s mother. Angella blinked. _I can’t remember their names,_ she quailed. After a moment, she shook it off. Catra took a breath. “Okay. So, you’re as bad about beating yourself up as Adora. Got it.” Angella chuckled. “Do you think that was really Horde Prime?”

Angella sighed, letting herself smile again. “I could not guess, though I hope he was. I would rather the war ended with exile rather than execution. To think you tried to forgive that monstrosity.” Her smile broadened. “Are you the same girl who nearly toppled Brightmoon? Surely not.”

Catra’s ears shot upright as she blushed. “Sh-shut up!” she blurted, looking away. Angella giggled, feeling a thousand years younger. “I mean – gah! Sorry!” The magicat buried her face in her hands.

With as much gentle care as she could muster, Angella drew Catra closer, curling one wing around her. “Are you quite done deflecting, dear, or have you other questions?”

The magicat spluttered, then curled in on herself. In spite of all the normal cats she’d cared for, Angella was still amazed at how small Catra could become. “She gave up on me,” Catra whispered. “And I – deserved it.”

“Catra. There is blame, and there is responsibility. You have chosen to take responsibility for your actions, which is all to the good,” Angella explained. “Have you thought, however, that perhaps you are overcompensating?”

Again, Catra spluttered. “Overcompensating? I blew up the world!” she pointed out. “You almost died!”

Angella put a hand on Catra’s shoulder, willing it to be kind. “Yes. It takes great skill to overdo remorse in your case.” Catra tried to speak, but aside from a tiny mew, no sound came out. “Catra, in my experience, people want to believe that we either have absolute control over our fates, or none at all. It is never that simple. Context matters. You were kidnapped as a child, mind-wiped, abused, denigrated, indoctrinated, discriminated against, expertly manipulated, and _literally tortured_ for most of your childhood. I suspect you made sacrifices for Adora that she is not aware of to this day.” Catra huffed – and leaned into Angella’s arm. “Your countless traumas do not make your worst actions right, but to me, those actions are both understandable and forgivable, especially given your extraordinary efforts to atone for them.” Again, Catra mewed, somehow curling further into herself. “You’re angry with her, aren’t you?”

Catra gasped and looked up at Angella. “How – agh!” The magicat’s hands shook. “Yes! Yes, I am, but I’m even angrier that I don’t have the right.”

_By the Stars._ Angella took care in moving to hug Catra. “Yes you do.” The queen felt Catra’s gasp as much as heard it. “Catra, emotions happen. They are neither right nor wrong, save love, which is never wrong. It is our actions that we must direct, and you have learned the importance of this.”

Catra snorted. “Yeah, the hard way. The really hard way.”

“Yet the pain others have caused you played its part,” Angella insisted. “Further, if I might hazard a guess, you are struggling with how to deal with Adora’s stubborn streak.” Catra chuckled while Angella continued. “While capable of admitting error, she must clearly be confronted with overwhelming evidence.”

Catra growled, ears pivoting back. “I – I’m not blaming her for that again. I can’t.”

Angella blinked; while not as exhausted as the magicat, she had not slept much herself since her ordeal. “Blame? For–” Angella gasped. _Shadow Weaver literally tortured Catra. But not Adora. That was more – subtle._ She indulged in making a fist with her free hand. “Oh. _Oh.”_ The queen unclenched her fist and rubbed her face. “Catra, have you spoken to Adora about this?”

Catra looked up at her in alarm. “What? No! No, and I’m never going to! You know what Adora’s like, she’ll never forgive herself if she knows that witch was hurting me right in front of–” 

“Catra?” Adora’s sleepy voice echoed along the hall. “You there?”

Catra turned pleading eyes on Angella. “Please. You can’t tell her, not now. Even – even at my worst, when I burned the whole world because Shadow Weaver left me for her, there was still enough love left in me to protect her from that.” Angella grimaced, and Catra’s eyes widened. “Please.”

“I understand, Catra, but you are not protecting her,” Angella pointed out. “Adora deserves to know the truth.”

“Catra?” Adora tried again. Angella stroked Catra’s hair as the woman – _Stars, barely more than a girl, really,_ the queen thought – shivered.“If you’re looking for something to eat, we can just go to the kitchen.”

“I will not tell her,” Angella conceded, and Catra gave a surprising hug, “but you should. Talk to one another, Catra. Trust her.”

“Told you. Coward,” Catra said.

“Oh, no,” Adora gasped.

Catra’s ears and tail shot up in alarm. “Crap. I forgot to put the letter back!” she gasped.

“Catra! Catra, where are you?” Adora cried, bursting through the door. Melog bounded towards them. “For the Honor–”

“Over here, Adora,” Catra replied. Quickly.

“I have her, dear,” Angella added. Adora practically appeared before them, Melog mewing and rubbing against Catra’s hip. “You two really should talk, Adora. I would suggest sleep, but I rather doubt either of you will get much tonight.”

Adora’s eyes were wide and shaken, already rimmed with tears. “Catra, I’m so sorry–”

“For what?” Catra snapped, turning further into Angella’s embrace. “Being right? Again?”

“I was wrong!” Adora blurted, and Catra looked up with such desperate hope that Angella had to suppress the urge to hold them both. “I shouldn’t have given up on you. I should never have – and I would, I’d do so many things differently if I could, I’d talk, I’d _listen–”_

_“Adora!”_ Catra cried, flinging herself into the heroine’s arms. They held each other, shaking in silent communion.

“Well, that appears to be my cue,” Angella noted, standing. “Still, I think I must elaborate on what I thought my last request.” Both young women looked up at her. “Adora, let Catra take care of you. Catra, let Adora take care of you.” Angella smiled. “Take care of each _other.”_ Then she scooped them up in a cushion made of light, both yelping in alarm. “Now. To bed with you both.” Indulging in a mother’s prerogative, she carried them back to Adora’s room and gently deposited them on her cot. “I will be up for a time if you need me.” With that, she showed herself out.

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Catra and Adora looked at each other and laughed, the magicat collapsing onto the cot. Melog put her paws by Catra’s shoulder and licked her cheek. “Okay, okay, I’m better, Melog.”

Melog huffed and dropped back to the floor, curling up and staring. Her eyes and mane turned orange. Adora smirked. “Busted.” Catra glared. _Traitor,_ she thought. Melog huffed again and looked away. “Melog’s a tell the size of Brightmoon.” The smirk vanished, and Adora sat beside Catra, taking her hand. “Talk to me? Please?”

Catra closed her eyes, too exhausted to even turn over. “Sparkles’ mom is kinda awesome.”

Adora paused. “I know,” she replied, giving Catra’s hand a gentle squeeze. “Did she help?”

“Yeah.” Catra shuddered, remembering too much all at once. “I think. She said it was okay for me to be mad at you, if I didn’t do anything bad.” She managed a faint smirk of her own. “Well, she was way more speechy about it, but hey, queen.”

Adora sighed, and Catra opened her eyes again. The sorrow on her face broke Catra’s heart. “Catra, I’m glad you understand that you hurt people, but that doesn’t make it okay that other people hurt you. It’s not okay that _I_ hurt you, or that I let Shadow Weaver hurt you–”

“You didn’t _let_ her hurt me, Adora!” Catra snapped, failing to sit up. “We were kids, what were you supposed to do?” Then she froze, eyes wide. “Wait, you knew?” Catra whispered. “You _knew_ what she was doing to me?”

Adora’s eyes mirrored Catra’s. “I – I thought I did. I mean, the paralysis, the threats, cruel words every day – Catra, was there more?”

_Stupid! Stupid stupid STUPID!_ Catra howled at herself, curling up as tight as she could. “That was enough,” she whispered. _Don’t ask,_ please _don’t ask–_

Adora didn’t ask. When Catra felt Adora’s hand quivering in hers, she realized Adora didn’t have to. “I’m such an idiot,” she breathed.

Catra uncurled. Adora’s eyes were wide, and she’d gone pale enough to rival Hordak. “Adora, no, please,” Catra begged.

“The nights you never came to bed, the mornings you could barely move, all the times you were on half-rations, you _always_ flinched at Garnet lightning, you barely had a mark after Scorpia – oh Stars, when we were sixteen, you crawled into bed and begged me to run away with you,” Adora remembered. _Nonono not like this!_ Catra tried to sit up, but collapsed, too exhausted after nine days of pushing herself _way_ too hard. “It was her, wasn’t it? All of it.”

“Now? Seriously?” Catra tried to bare her fangs, in voice and in truth, but neither worked. “You figured it out now?”

Adora took a deep, shuddering breath, then let it go. “Catra? May – may I hold you?” Catra sighed and nodded. The cot was hardly wide enough for one person, but somehow Adora managed to curl around her. “I...I get why you didn’t tell me before. She’s gone now. Please don’t let anyone hurt you again without telling me. _Please.”_

Catra released a thoroughly catlike whine, then surrendered. “Fine. Okay.”

Adora shuddered against the magicat. “I get why you were so mad in Thaymor, now. I saw it with strangers, but not–” A tear dropped onto Catra’s shoulder. “I’m such an _idiot.”_

“Adora, please, enough,” Catra sighed. “I kinda overreacted. A lot. And it was still me not wanting to share you, and feeling like second best, I didn’t make those up–” Catra froze. _Oh. Oh, WOW. This is exactly what I deserve, isn’t it?_

Catra laughed, stopping when Adora stiffened and looked her in the eyes. “Catra, that sounded like a bad laugh,” Adora said.

“Nah. I just realized, I did all those horrible things to prove I’m worth something without you.” Catra smirked and shook her head. “And oh look, all I proved is, I’m not.” Adora gasped. “Everything I’m good for is about you. Isn’t that just the perfect punishment?” Melog whimpered. Catra’s smirk vanished at the horror on Adora’s face. _Oh. Crap._ “Well, except that I love you and I’m still happy with you but–”

Adora uncurled from around her and stood. “Okay, no.” She reached into the air. “For the Honor of Grayskull!”

Before Catra’s eyes had adjusted to the blinding flash, She-Ra had scooped her up in her arms and carried her out into the hall. “Adora! Did you turn into She-Ra or Scorpia?” Catra tried to squirm out of Adora’s arms, but even though Adora wasn’t pinning her down, she lacked the strength to pull herself out.

In moments, they were in front of Glimmer’s door. “Glimmer? I need your–” Adora began.

They vanished and reappeared in a burst of shimmering light. Catra’s stomach was too tired to overload, settling for a nasty lurch and one gulp. “Sorry, Catra,” Glimmer looked her over with a gasp. “Stars, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Catra muttered before she could stop herself. She tried to facepalm – and missed, covering her mouth instead.

Glimmer stared for a moment. “I’m getting Bow,” she announced, vanishing and reappearing with a pajama-clad, teeth-brushing Bow before either of them could react.

Bow dropped his toothbrush, jaw following. “Catra?” he gasped. “Have you been eating?”

“Aagh – of course I’ve been eating!” she objected, clenching fists. Her stomach didn’t so much growl as roar. Adora glared. Catra looked away. “I’ve been eating light, so what?”

“Catra thinks she’s not worth anything without me,” Adora explained to the Best Friends Squad. “Help?”

Glimmer looked at Bow with a pleading gaze that stunned Catra, whose attempt at a growl came out as a mewl. _How did this sparkly princess end up caring about_ me _of all people?_ she wondered.

Bow grinned. “Actually, I was going to do this in a few days anyway–” he began.

“Wait, _what?”_ Catra blurted.

Bow sighed. “Look, Catra, it took me a while to get past – you know,” Bow began.

_“You know, it took me a while, but I finally figured out your character.”_ Catra shook it off. “Yeah.”

“But I finally realized that all you ever wanted was for people to accept and appreciate you for the person you are. I really get that,” Bow continued, briefly subdued. “So, since you need food and rest, first thing is, we’re gonna have a sleepover!”

Glimmer lit up. “Bow, that’s a great idea!” she gushed, teleporting a mass of blankets and pillows to the floor.

“We’re gonna talk about all the amazing things you’ve done,” Bow continued, Adora smiling like a star and Melog purring like an engine, “and when you’re rested, you’re gonna lead a mission to remind you how awesome you are.”

Catra scoffed. “The only good I’ve done is fixing my own mistakes,” she muttered.

“Ugh!” Glimmer threw her hands up. “Look, Catra, no one’s gonna say you didn’t do anything wrong, but you didn’t build the portal, kidnap children, or create the Horde. You’re doing way more good now than any bad you did.”

“You’re also wrong about the mistakes thing,” Adora added. “You didn’t have anything to do with the First Ones, but you saved me from that monster, and then again in the Heart.” She chuckled. “Besides, you took down Shadow Weaver and Hordak! As a _bad guy,_ you were a better hero than I was.”

Catra’s ears shot upright. _What?!_ “Are you crazy?” Catra snapped. “Queen Angella–”

“Home,” Glimmer retorted.

“Salineas–” Catra tried again.

“Completely restored,” Bow pointed out, waving a Galactic Horde control pad Catra recognized. He pulled it out of her reach before she could grab it. “Funny how the Horde’s bots fixed the place up like new. But you’d know all about that, huh?”

“Only you could conquer an entire kingdom without killing anyone, Horde scum,” Glimmer quipped, her smile gentle.

“Aagh,” Catra groaned, curling up in Adora’s arms. “Don’t sleepovers have sleep? Princesses don’t make sense.”

The other three laughed, then Adora lowered Catra into a nest of bedding. “Everyone deserves love, Catra,” Bow continued. “Love’s not about earning.”

Glimmer’s smile vanished. “No matter what Shadow Weaver taught you.”

“And we’ll be here to prove it to you,” Adora insisted. Catra couldn’t help mewing and curling up against She-Ra when she dropped down behind her. “As long as it takes.”

“...thanks,” Catra murmured, already drifting off. Bow’s eyes sparkled like his girlfriend. She was too tired to let it bother her.

For the first time in her life, Catra felt completely safe, letting herself rest at long last.

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Adora watched, pretending not to be terrified, as Catra marched towards the renegade Horde company, walking into the kill-box of a valley apparently alone. _She’ll be fine. We found their commander’s snipers. Netossa, Spinerella, Perfuma, and – Angella, of all people – are ready to take them out. Glimmer’s overhead with Swift Wind for a fast rescue if we need one. Melog has me and Bow cloaked if she needs us. Entrapta and Hordak are in Darla if things get really messy._ Adora took a long, deep breath. _She’ll be_ fine. _Breathe._

A smile crept across Adora’s face when she remembered Catra explaining why she wanted to bring Angella along. _“The lady who wanted to stay trapped in a void with Horde Prime to protect_ me _thinks she’s a coward. I’m not gonna let that slide.”_ All the same, she imagined the Sword in her hand as a vanguard strode out to meet her love. “Commander Catra,” the leader said. Adora didn’t recognize the voice, but from the way Catra’s ears swiveled up, she did. “So good to see you again.”

“Hey, Dreer,” Catra replied, and their leader slid off his helmet. He looked like a male Light Spinner, his smirk on an azure face, pointed ears as long as Catra’s. “You’re good, but you were one of Shadow Weaver’s. This isn’t your show. Where’s Vultak?”

Dreer’s smirk vanished. “How–” he stopped, then snarled a curse. “Sneaky. You’ve always been sneaky. Doesn’t matter. General Vultak is beyond you. He’s rebuilding the Horde, and he has an entire terrified galaxy ready to obey someone who can lead them.” He glared at Catra, one finger pointed out, glowing with dark power. “It could have been you. The Horde would have followed you into the void, but you went back to _her._ Shadow Weaver’s golden child – she gave Adora _everything,_ while she took even your magic!”

Adora’s heart lurched, tears forming – until Catra _laughed._ She drew a magic circle in the air, then shattered it with her claws. “Please. I’ve got magic, but we both know I never needed it. Stand down.” Her smirk vanished. “The Horde was a lie.” Dreer’s soldiers murmured behind her. “The princesses were never evil. We didn’t bring peace. Prime literally stuck Hordak’s dream in his head, and it was a boot stamping on every face, forever. I never cared about any of that crap. All I wanted was to prove myself to someone. I chose the wrong people.”

_“We_ believe in you!” one of the other soldiers cried, and Adora’s heart started again.

The one voice turned into a torrent, Catra’s eyes growing wider with each addition. “You destroyed the Box!” “You ended rationing punishment!” “You fixed requisitions!” Adora gasped as one voice after another cried out the things she’d done, not to them, but _for _them.__

____

“Enough!” Catra roared, holding up her hands. Dreer turned, jaw dropping at the sight of his soldiers obeying her. “If you believe in me, go home. The war is over! No one is going to attack the Fright – Scorpion Hill. Queen Angella has declared an amnesty for everyone in the Horde, if we can just live in peace.” The soldiers stared for a moment, then murmured among each other.

____

Dreer gulped. “E-enough of this farce! Fire!” he ordered.

____

Nothing happened. Dreer gasped. A bear-woman tore off her helmet and glared at him. “Do you think we’re going to attack _Commander Catra,_ you traitor?”

____

Catra laughed. “Nah. He just means the snipers my team took out five minutes ago.” At those words, Netossa and Spinnerella stood, revealing one windblown group caught in blue strands, while Perfuma and Angella emerged with half their captives bound in vines and half sealed in jeweled light. “You really want to give up now, Dreer.”

____

“Feckless child!” Dreer snapped, magic glowing around one hand and a stun baton flying into the other. “I challenge you for leadership of the Horde!”

____

Catra shrugged, her smirk growing. “Okay.” Adora gasped, leaping forward and reaching for the Sword, magic words on her lips–

____

It was over in a flash. Before Dreer could fire his baton, let alone form a spell, Catra had dashed into his face, leaped, slashed his baton into diced metal with one hand, kicked his spell hand, and driven a knuckle-punch into the gap between breastplate and belt. Dreer folded like Bow playing Bridge. Catra tossed the fringe of hair that had grown back aside while Dreer groaned at her feet. _Oh, Stars,_ Adora thought, staring as she licked her lips. _Catra looks amazing like that._

____

Bow chuckled. “Come on,” he said, waving as Melog turned them visible and he headed over to help get the former soldiers home. “You can ogle your girlfriend later.”

____

Adora’s face went blazing hot. “I – I wasn’t _ogling!”_ Melog chuckled and padded after Bow. Adora wondered if sinking into the ground might be one of She-Ra’s powers.

____

It wasn’t, so she had to endure more than a few chuckles – even from the Horde soldiers! – as she jogged over to Catra’s side. Adora watched, glowing with pride, while Catra moved through the group, assuring them that the Princess Alliance wouldn’t harm them. “Skiffs are on the way,” she told one fire team. “Scorpia’s got the Zone running. You’ll be fine.”

____

“So, you’re not good for anything besides me, huh?” Adora asked. Catra yelped, leaped, and whirled on Adora. The soldiers spun, hands on baton holsters. She-Ra put up her hands. “Hey, her words, not mine. This operation’s secondary goal was proving her wrong.”

____

Adora bit down on a squee when even the team of random Horde soldiers turned “really?” looks on Catra. Catra’s blush was the most exquisite thing Adora had ever seen. “ADORA!” Catra wailed. Melog leaped to her side, and the two vanished. The Alliance members laughed.

____

It didn’t take long for Adora to find Angella, Catra and Melog under a tree, looking towards the distant Fright Zone. “It is good to see Scorpion Hill recovering,” Angella explained, Catra scratching Melog’s head while the big cat licked her arm. “I’ve petitioned the Alliance to hold the next Princess Prom in Scorpia’s realm.”

____

Catra laughed. It was the most beautiful sound in the universe. “And I promise 100% less Heat Bombs this time.” She finally saw Adora standing there. “Hey, Adora. Enjoying the view?”

____

“Yep. Best in the world,” Adora replied, looking at Catra. The magicat looked away, blushing.

____

“I should check on Glimmer,” Angella said, spreading her wings and soaring off.

____

“Subtle,” Catra chuckled. She gave Adora that smile. “Thanks, Adora. For trusting me.”

____

“Of course,” Adora replied, hugging Catra. “I have faith in you.”

____

_“You never did have much faith in me.”_ The old memory seemed to glitch into oblivion as Catra returned the hug. “So,” Catra said. “Still want that road trip?”

____

“Only if you’re ready,” Adora insisted.

____

Catra laughed again. “Come on. What would you dorks do without me?”

____

Adora joined her laugh. “Good thing we’ll never have to find out,” she replied, sliding out of the hug to hold Catra’s hand. Side by side, they walked together toward the future.

____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aargh I thought I was done with this fic but TOO MANY FEELS
> 
> Seriously, I loved the ending of Season 5, but did Catra end up as anything other than Adora's gf? Fortunately, even a cursory glance at Adora's post-development character makes it obvious that she'd have NONE of that. Besides, I wrote a Momgella fic with no Momgella. WTF.
> 
> For anyone who's wondering, yes, that's the letter from Rebel Princess Guide.
> 
> Also, I had to get in a little "Catra being badass turns Adora on" action. *g*


	3. Magicats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra discovers that the only thing harder for her to deal with than judgment is adoration.

Even after a month in Brightmoon, Catra hadn’t gotten used to peace. Happiness was even stranger – in some ways, it was _a_ stranger to her. Still, wandering through the celebration, Adora’s hand in hers, was joy even the magicat couldn’t mistake for anything else. The occasional glare she got was surprisingly tolerable. Stars, Catra found herself getting more smiles than glares.

_And it’s not like this isn’t practical,_ Catra told herself. _There’s like six different plays on about how She-Ra saved the universe from the Horde. Double Trouble has to be here somewhere._ She glanced at one performance, wincing at the sight of her fictional self toy with a crystal-possessed Adora. “Hey,” Adora insisted, pulling Catra closer, “it’s over.”

“Yeah, I know,” Catra muttered. Then her eyes widened as play-Catra and play-Adora froze, moving towards each other with agonizing need, lips slowly pursing. “I don’t remember us being that…intense, though.”

“I think it’s called ‘artistic license,’ or something,” Adora mumbled, cheeks burning, as she tugged Catra along faster.

Then, where the play had given Catra pause, the children dressed as She-Ra and – Catra herself? – froze her solid. Rather than fighting each other, however, the two girls were battling puppet Horde-clones about their size. Grinning adults paraded the figures past on long sticks for the pair to defeat. “Don’t matter how many clones you have! We’re She-Ra and Catra!” kid-Catra boasted, the ears on her headband wiggling.

“No one can beat us together!” kid She-Ra cheered, twirling a little wooden Sword. Adora gasped and hugged Catra. _No way. Kids are playing – me?_

“But you’re _bad,_ Catra,” one of the adults called, shaking a larger Horde Prime puppet at them. “You’ll always be bad.” Catra froze. She couldn’t breathe. Adora’s hand in hers became her only anchor to Etheria.

“Nuh-uh!” kid-Catra snarled back. “Just ‘cause I was bad before, doesn’t mean I’ve gotta be bad now!” The grown-up with “Horde Prime” sneered for their figure, pulling their puppet back. The other adults smiled.

“You can’t make us fight each other any more!” kid She-Ra jumped in, literally, side by side with Catra’s little counterpart. “For the honor of Grayskull! Boom!”

The adults laughed and cheered, scattering their puppets. The Horde Prime puppeteer tried for a dramatic “Nooo!”, but was laughing too hard to pull it off. _So, definitely not Double Trouble,_ Catra decided.

“What are you doing?” The children froze, as did Catra, as a sea elf hobbled towards them on a metal leg, leaning heavily on her cane. “That tyrant is no role model.”

“B-but she learned to be good,” kid-Catra stammered, tears brimming in her eyes.

The sea elf stared at the girl for a moment, eyes narrowing. “And now she’s a hero?” the woman rapped her artificial leg with the cane. “Must be nice.”

“Hey,” the Horde Prime actor jumped in, “they’re just kids, leave them alone.” The sea elf turned on him, scowl deepening.

_Okay, no,_ Catra thought, striding forward before a shocked Adora could stop her. “Hey! You wanna yell at someone for being me, try starting with me,” Catra insisted.

The kids dressed as her and She-Ra gasped, then cheered. The old sea-elf recoiled for a moment before realizing Catra wasn’t attacking. “You don’t get to be self-righteous with me, magicat traitor!” she snapped, leaning towards Catra on her cane. “You did this. No one should pretend you’re some kind of role model!”

Adora rejoined Catra, but she ignored the hero. “And I’m sorry about it, and if I can help you, I will,” Catra replied, “but come after me, not a couple of little kids.”

“What would you know about it, monster?” the woman said.

Catra snorted. “Taking out someone hurting you on other people is how you become me, lady,” she pointed out. The old woman froze. Then, with tears in her eyes contrasting the snarl on her lips, she raised the cane, and Adora moved to intervene, and Catra stepped forward to stop her–

–but a clawed hand grabbed the cane and forced it back down before the woman could swing. “That’s enough,” the man said, helping the sea elf regain her footing. That let Catra get a good look at the...magicat?!

He was big, with enough muscle to make up about two Catras, gray furred with white points, golden eyes like Catra’s one, and a compressed staff like Huntara’s on his hip. Behind him, a magicat woman a bit younger than Catra leaped beside him, with purple fur and blue eyes like Catra’s other. “I understand your anger, madam,” the magicat man continued, everyone frozen and staring at him, “but Shadow Weaver stole Catriska’s memories with her freedom. Please let us make this up to you in her stead.”

The sea elf hobbled back, jaw dropping. Catra shook her head, blinking through crimson haze to focus. “Who–” she began.

The memory roared to life in her mind… _Catriska laughed. “Again, Uncle Percy! Again!_

_Sir Percival laughed back, playing with the compressed hilt. “Well, if my favorite niece insists,” he quipped._

_“That’s cheating. I’m your only niece,” Catriska noted with a pout. Kyra smiled and hugged her daughter._

Catra gasped. “Uncle...you’re an uncle...”

The other magicat woman smiled, golden eyes alight. “She’s starting to remember, Sir Percival!”

Percival’s jaw hardened. “That...could present issues,” he whispered, staring at Catra. Her head felt like Shadow Weaver was practicing lightning between her ears. “Try to calm down, kit.”

Everything tilted, noise too loud and colors spinning and lights too bright and shadows too dark and she saw Percival playing with her and fire raging through her home and dark magic a spear through Mom’s heart and lost lost everything lost–

-SR- -SR- -SR-

_I’m not panicking,_ Adora lied to herself, gripping Catra’s hand as though she would disappear if Adora let go.

They’d spent days making sure Catra recovered from her sacrifices working to rescue Angella, the magicat spending as much time in the infirmary as their room. Adora had hoped more than anything that they wouldn’t see the place again until one of them was giving birth.

For the first time, the thought didn’t make her blush.

_At least we’re not alone,_ Adora thought, grateful for the Best Friends Squad, royal couple, and Melog being there. _And then there are the...other magicats._ Sir Percival – _Uncle_ Percival, apparently – sat on the other side of Catra’s cot, stroking her still-too-short hair while Adora held Catra’s hand. And the other magicat lady, whom they still hadn’t introduced, watched Catra with intense concern from a perch on a cabinet, curled up so much like a nervous Catra it made Adora’s heart ache.

“Come on, you guys,” Glimmer insisted, “stop worrying. It’s Catra! She’s probably the toughest – non-princess alive.”

Percival replied with a wan smile. “Even after Shadow Weaver, she still takes after Kyra in some ways,” he said, hand pausing on Catra’s forehead.

“That’s Catra’s mother, right?” Adora asked, finding the strength to look at him properly.

Micah nodded with a smile. “I can’t believe I had trouble remembering her. She was a dear friend during my years in Mystacor. A few years older...” the smile faded. “...and in love with Light Spinner.”

Bow gasped. “Oh, no...”

The other magicat’s eyes narrowed. “It’s a good thing she’s dead,” she hissed, holding out a palm. Fire came to life above her palm. “For her.”

“Felicia...” Percival sighed.

Angella stared while Micah gasped and stood. “Felicia? Little Felicia?” the king asked.

“For Bast’s sake! I’m not a baby any more,” Felicia huffed, uncurling her arms from around her knees to cross them.

Micah smiled. “You got away,” he whispered.

Felicia shook her head, closing her eyes. Adora noticed tears forming in spite of that. “No. Catriska saved me. She got me to the palace, pushed me into a vent, closed the grill behind me.” Her tail lashed almost exactly the way Catra’s would when she was upset. “She got caught saving me.”

“Oh.” Adora smiled. “Oh, wow. Catra thought she’d been abandoned, but all this time, she’d been a hero from the beginning.” She stroked Catra’s hair, trying to keep the _please wake up_ mantra in her mind under control. “Stars, I want to be here when she finds out.” Felicia huffed and looked away. Adora chuckled. “Are you related?”

“Cousins,” Percival explained, his smile returning.

“The D’riluth family has been the heart of magicat defense for generations,” Angella explained. “The council has chosen half the kingdom’s queens from them since before Mara’s time.”

Catra groaned. The conversation stopped, all eyes on the slender magicat. “Wha – where – oh, slag,” Catra sighed. “I fainted? Kill me now.”

“You didn’t faint,” Percival half-growled. “That was Shadow Weaver’s magic kicking in.”

Catra snorted, holding her head with her free hand. “It sure felt like someone kicking my head in.”

Felicia hissed. “I wanted to kick Shadow Weaver’s head in.”

“Shadow Weaver should die in a fire,” Catra snapped. Before Adora could even gape, Catra smirked. “Oh wait. She did.”

Adora clamped her hand over her mouth, horror and laughter warring inside her. Felicia laughed, apparently having no such conflict. Micah’s face went neutral, though. “Catra,” Adora finally said, regaining some control, “that was – _so_ inappropriate.”

“But fair,” Glimmer agreed, crossing her arms.

“Catriska,” Percival cut in, and the banter came to a stop. “It wasn’t your fault. What Shadow Weaver did to you happened because you saved an innocent child,” he continued, and Adora recognized the distress in Felicia’s ears going flat, “and you collapsed today because the witch wanted you helpless if you ever remembered.”

“That certainly sounds like her,” Micah muttered, sounding sad. Angella gave him a one-armed hug which he returned.

Catra’s bravado vanished as quickly as it had appeared. “I – I still–”

“Got mindwiped and brainwashed saving me,” Felicia whispered, then uncurled and leaped down to land beside Percival. “Forget them. Come to Halfmoon! You can be with us – with your people,” the princess gushed, grasping Catra’s other hand. Catra’s eyes went wide, shining blue and gold. Adora fell in love with her all over again. “You belong there.”

“Yeah, until they find out what I – until _you_ find out–” Catra pulled both hands free and curled up as tight as Adora had ever seen. “–don’t – don’t _look_ at me.”

Angella and Micah looked at each other in alarm. Adora wrapped Catra in a hug, holding her close. “It’s going to be all right, Catra,” Adora said. Melog shrank to housecat size and leaped into Catra’s arms, nuzzling against her cheek.

“Triss,” Percy whispered, stroking her hair, “we already know.” Catra turned her head to look up at him, eyes wide. “We’ve been trying to reach you for so long, but...”

Felicia sighed. “My mom is kinda overprotective.”

“You too, huh?” Glimmer asked, her smile sympathetic.

Angella gasped. _“Glimmer!”_

Glimmer stared suddenly, eyes misting over. “I...missed you so much...”

Somehow, that distracted Catra from her misery, and she looked up at Adora, the question obvious in her eyes. “No idea,” Adora replied. “It wasn’t exactly something unusual my first year in Brightmoon.”

“‘Glimmah’?” Catra muttered, shaking her head.

“Please,” Felicia pleaded, “give us a chance.”

Catra’s head fell back onto the gurney. “You’re not the ones who don’t deserve one.” Felicia let out a familiar, unhappy mew.

Adora stood. _Okay, no._ She concentrated, and a memory of the Failsafe flickered over her heart. Catra gasped. “You saved the universe,” Adora reminded her love, matching gazes with light-soaked eyes. “I was beaten. Broken. Lost. You reached me and set me free, then gave me the strength to survive all Etheria’s power.”

“You did a lot more than one good thing, Horde scum,” Glimmer added, smiling.

Catra sighed and sat up. “Everyone here knows how that lady lost her leg, right?” When no one responded, she put her hand over her eyes, holding her head. “I’m not getting out of this, am I?”

“You’ll get a hero’s welcome,” Felicia insisted. “I promise.”

Adora’s eyes widened when Catra looked up again, her expression a mask but ears and tail shooting out. “I...okay. Just...I take promises seriously.” Adora held Catra’s hand again, trying not to worry. _That’s an understatement._

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Catra hadn’t stopped gaping since they walked through the illusory wall at the end of the maze. _This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen,_ she thought, unable to stop herself from gawking like a rube.

Towering spires covered in some gorgeous blue stone with golden streaks, apparently called lapis lazuli, magically controlled the water supply. They pulled streams through the air to fill aqueducts overhead, creating shining arches of liquid in the process. Long buildings built with stone columns and crimson bricks were lit by crystals literally called tiger’s eyes, golden light shining between red bands. Archways of sand-colored stone held up bridges between buildings in the upper layers, where Bubasti rode elegant skiffs and impressive winged steeds called Takdryl – lizards shaped like horses, but with claws and fangs. Plus, you know, the wings.

They were cool enough that Catra almost wanted one. Almost.

And everywhere, _everywhere,_ there were people who looked like her. Bubasti – magicats – of every shape and size, with fur ranging from midnight black to snowy white, with metallic blue, golden orange, silver-gray, and her own tawny brown in between. Almost none of them wore shoes, much to Catra’s relief.

A lot of them were staring – but Felicia’s promise proved true. Most stared in awe, amazed at the lost champion come home. Whispers of “even Shadow Weaver couldn’t control her” and “rescued She-Ra” wove around them.

Sure, there were a few more cynical gazes and voices, wondering how much Horde there still was in the prodigal molly – the word for female Bubasti, apparently. _I would’ve thought the whole thing was a con if_ some _of them weren’t suspicious, at least._ She held onto Adora’s hand like a lifeline all the same and rounded another corner.

The palace stopped Catra in her tracks. It was a massive stepped pyramid, ten stories tall, with broader segments forming most of the body covered in lapis, while traditional staircases ran up all four sides to a chamber at the top covered in tiger’s eye. Brightmoon was the only larger castle Catra had seen.

(She forced herself not to think of the Velvet Glove. It wasn’t a real castle anyway.)

At least the others were as amazed as Catra was. Adora stared like the tourist she was, while Glimmer and Bow chattered with excitement. Micah was greeted as the returning hero he was, a few of the older magicats joyful at finally meeting his wife. Only Melog was impassive, accepting the adulation of the Bubasti as their due.

_I wish Scorpia was here,_ Catra thought, feeling more like Adora’s plus one than she had since before the Sword. _Or Entrapta._ Then Felicia leaped in front of her, smiling and holding out her hand. _That works, I guess._ Gathering her ragged courage, Catra followed Uncle Percy and Princess Felicia up the long staircase to the royal complex.

Then two of the guards transformed – they changed into great cats, one a massive tiger, the other a sleek panther – and raced up the steps. Catra froze, but mercifully, so did the others, except Micah. “That’s...a thing we do?” she asked.

“Great Saz, they didn’t even guide you through the First Change?” Percival stared in disbelief. “Did Hordak _want_ to lose?”

Catra shrugged as they walked up the stairs – then almost stumbled when the stairs moved, carrying them up. “We were all pretty self-destructive in the Horde. Besides, Shadow Weaver hated me.” Adora tensed beside her.

Felicia bristled, fur rippling. Catra pulled herself closer to Adora, winding her tail around Adora’s wrist. The princess’ mouth flattened into a line, then she transformed into a purple lioness and raced up the steps. Percival sighed. “Please excuse her,” he said, scratching his hair. “Felicia’s always felt bad about Catriska’s capture.”

Before any of them could process that, they arrived at the massive throne complex. There, magicat courtiers in fine outfits of deep blue and shining gold watched, their chatter dying as the heroes walked past. Catra stroked Melog’s mane, working to keep them both at a calm sky blue.

In moments, they were before twin thrones. One held a woman with raven hair and lavender fur, dressed in an elegant blue wrap with a gold belt and trim. Her eyes were a piercing scarlet, and her crown was simple, a single band of gold with a modest sapphire in the front. In the other sat a massive, tawny man with a fiery crimson mane encircling his face. He wore blue armor, but his was trimmed with steel rather than gold, only his bracers the ubiquitous color. Standing on the woman’s other side was an elderly magicat, his fur almost silver, wearing a dark gray robe and leaning heavily on a cane. “Catriska, you stand before Queen Selina and King Claudus, rulers of Halfmoon and protectors of the Eyes of Qadi,” Percival explained, then turned to the monarchs and straightened. “Your Majesties, it is my great honor to escort home Lady Catriska D’riluth, our lost champion.”

“I’m a what now?” Catra blurted. The entire court froze. “Sorry, your, uh, majesties,” she muttered, trying to bow. “I...the Horde didn’t tell me anything about...well, me.”

“Most champions of Halfmoon earn their titles through trials,” the old guy replies, his voice just above a whisper. “However, some champions give birth to children with heterochromia, bearing the marks of great potential.”

“Thank you, Minister Cloudfoot,” the queen said with a nod. “It is clear, Lady Catriska, that you were deprived of much during your captivity.” Catra gulped, tail lashing, but said nothing. _No idea what I’d say,_ she thought. “It is my hope that you will stay for a time, learning of your people...” Selina smiled at last, her eyes warm and kind, “...and, perhaps, considering a place in our family.”

Catra gasped, grateful she wasn’t the only one. “What?” she blurted, kicking herself for that word having become half her vocabulary.

“Our debt to you is beyond repayment,” Selina continued, “but I remember when you were a kit, and our families have always been close. We would be honored to adopt you, if you are willing.”

Glimmer stepped forward before Catra’s brain could unlock. “Whoa, hold on,” the princess objected.

Felicia’s narrow-eyed glare bordered on lethal, shadows gathering in one hand and a tiny flame in the other. “You think her unworthy, human?”

Glimmer’s eyes bulged. “Unwor – _we_ were talking about adopting her!” she insisted, gesturing at her parents.

For an instant, Catra couldn’t see, blinded by a mix of disbelief and panic. Adora’s grip felt like it was all that held her in reality. “You can’t want me, you can’t, you can’t,” Catra sobbed, swaying in place. There was a storm of motion around them, ears hypersensitive as Catra’s eyes betrayed her.

“Catra!” Adora hugged her, holding her tight. “Breathe, come on, honey, it’s okay.”

“Sir Tao, escort our guests to their quarters,” Selina ordered. “Today has clearly been...over-stimulating in some ways.” Catra clung to Adora even as she spiraled. _Stupid, pathetic, weak...what’s_ wrong _with me?_

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Glimmer waited outside Catra and Adora’s room, watching the door alongside Princess Felicia while Sir Percival helped calm the two down. “So, uh, no hard feelings?” Glimmer offered, rewarded with a laugh like a young Catra’s.

“No, no hard feelings,” Felicia replied, giving Glimmer a shoulder nudge. “I think our dads are talking about some kind of foster arrangement, so she can be both our sisters.” the magicat’s smile vanished. “If she even wants us.”

Glimmer sighed. “I don’t know how much she remembers, but it’s...not a lot,” she said with a shrug. “Besides, Catra’s got...parent issues.”

“Shadow Weaver,” Felicia hissed. Glimmer nodded, swallowing her guilt. “Did you know, she offered to let Catriska escape?” Glimmer stared, jaw dropping. “She said something about one last mercy, for ‘a love long lost,’ as long as Catriska got out of the way.”

“And let her catch you,” Glimmer whispered. Felicia nodded, tears glistening with reflections of blue. “What happened?”

Felicia laughed. “What do you think? Triss bit her leg!” Glimmer gaped for a moment, then joined the laugh. “I could hear Shadow Weaver howling and stumbling, trying to pull Triss off while she sunk all her claws in!”

“Oh, Stars, I can just see it,” Glimmer chuckled, shaking her head. “Catra never does know when to quit.” Felicia nodded. “It sounds like you remember her, y’know, more than that.”

Felicia turned somber again. “Mom had...complications, when I was born. I’m an only child.” Glimmer nodded in sympathy. “Half my earliest memories are of Triss being, like, the _best_ big sister. She was smart, and fun, and she never _ever_ talked down to me even though she was almost two years older...” Felicia hugged herself with one arm, and it was so much like Catra’s insecure moments that it broke Glimmer’s heart. “I ran,” she whispered.

“Felicia–” Glimmer tried.

“She told me to run and I _ran_ and _hid_ like one of Set’s own cowards,” Felicia whimpered, shaking, “and Shadow Weaver murdered her mom and stole her memories and dragged her into a living nightmare!” She stared at the door with dull eyes. “It should’ve been me.”

“Whoa, hey, hey,” Glimmer said, taking Felicia’s free hand, “no one should have gone through, that. You were what, three? And I’ll bet you just about anything that Catra’s glad it happened saving you, instead of being found in a box.”

Felicia spluttered, straightening and letting her arm go. “Is – is that what Shadow Weaver told her?”

Glimmer snorted. “She actually put Catra in a box. That’s how Adora found her.” Felicia’s eyes narrowed again, glaring at the door. “Look, those two have plenty of of history, but trust me, they’ve both been through a lot. Nothing’s going to tear them apart now.”

Felicia sighed, looking down. “So. Um. I heard your boyfriend say something about a space trip.”

“Bringing magic back to the universe,” Glimmer said, nodding. “Plus, the Horde conquered a lot of planets, and Adora’s people are probably out there somewhere.”

“The First Ones.” Felicia’s tail lashed behind her. “Does she have to leave so soon?”

“Of course not,” Bow said as he approached. _How did I get so lucky?_ Glimmer wondered, not for the first time, sharing a smile with him. “Etheria needs a lot of help too, and I bet the Bubasti can do plenty now that the Horde’s gone.”

Felicia smirked, and Glimmer was again amazed at how much she was like Catra. “We’re already doing plenty. Magicats are masters of illusion. We’ve had agents helping keep Vultak pinned down for years.” The smirk vanished. “Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me go out until I was ‘of age,’ blah blah blah,” she continued, rolling her eyes, “but we’ve been keeping an eye on things disguised as other species.”

Glimmer looked away. “Did...you send anyone after her?”

“Four different teams that first year,” Felicia explained. “None of them ever returned.”

Percival opened the door, and Catra walked out, freezing at the sight of the trio standing outside. “Um. Uncle Percy offered to show me how to do the...change thing.”

“The First Change?” Felicia blurted, watching Melog rub against Catra’s hip. “You guys really need to see this. It is so cool.” Catra swallowed and nodded.

“Hey,” Glimmer said, teleporting to Catra’s side and putting a hand on her shoulder, “you’ll do great. I know it.”

“That makes one of us, Sparkles,” Catra muttered.

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Catra had never felt so good doing something that wasn’t tied to Adora.

Her body felt light, graceful, _free._ Her friends whooped and cheered as Catra darted through rings, leaped across platforms, ran along rails. She grew to rival Melog for a leap, then shrank to housecat size to fly through the air, then landed in her normal form.

“Holy Bast, you’re a natural!” Felicia cried, pumping a fist.

“Look at you go!” Percival chimed in, transforming and leaping up to join her.

Adora laughed. “So what other awesome magicat stuff can you do?”

“Dunno,” Catra replied, “but I’m gonna love finding out.” She glanced at Percy, changing and grinning in what she’d come to think of as her ligress form. “Hey, Uncle Percy, is the nine lives thing a magicat power too?”

Percy’s smile vanished. “So you know about that,” he replied, looking Catra over. “How many times have you died?”

“Wait wait wait, you _died?”_ Adora blurted, eyes wide. “But, on Horde Prime’s ship–”

“That was my last one,” Catra replied, smirking as Adora stared. “You and your crazy She-Ra magic gave them all back.” She couldn’t help laughing at the dumbfounded look Adora gave her.

“You’re doing better,” Glimmer noted, smirking back.

Catra changed back into her normal form again, smile vanishing. “Yeah, I guess,” she muttered. “It’s just...a lot, you know? This changing thing helps.”

“Magicats are changing folk,” Percy explained. “Our other gifts are sources of great joy, but the First Change is a need.”

“Okay, STOP,” Adora demanded, and everyone did. “You died _nine times?”_

The others looked horrified. Catra shrugged. “Yeah. Mostly doing stupid crap.” They all stared. It almost made Catra laugh again. _Honestly, what did they expect?_ she thought, going through her deaths. “Shadow Weaver killed me the first time. Burned one for Sparkles. You saw the thing with Prime. The rest...yeah, stupid.”

Glimmer’s jaw dropped. “You _died_ for me?!”

“I had one left,” Catra noted. “I mean, I died to freak Adora out escaping from Princess Prom. Don’t make a big deal out of it.” Adora’s eyes blew wide.

Felicia’s eyes turned diamond hard. “Can Cloudfoot bring back Shadow Weaver, so I can kill her again?” Percival stared at her in horror. “I’ll donate one of my lives, if that helps.”

“She’s not worth it,” Catra replied, leaping back down. “Look, Felicia...I’m flattered. By, y’know, the adoption thing.” She put a hand on the younger magicat’s shoulder. “Can I have some time? I’m still remembering stuff.”

Felicia nodded, transforming and leaping away. “Take all the time you need, Triss,” Percival said, giving her a quick hug. “We’re here when you’re ready.” He, too, changed and darted off.

“Yes!” Glimmer fist-pumped. “So, you’re coming back, right?” At Catra’s confused stare, she chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck. “It’s actually kind of funny. We hadn’t said anything yet because…well, we didn’t want to spook you.”

Catra snorted a chuckle. “Actually a good call.”

“Glimmer,” Adora sighed. Glimmer deflated, and Bow gave her a hug while Adora turned to face Catra. “Are you okay, Catra?”

“No!” Catra cried, causing all three to lock up. “I’m a slagging mess, Adora! I thought nothing could be worse than everyone hating me, but this – I think it’d be easier if they looked at me like a monster!” She held her head and looked down. “Why don’t they hate me?”

“Maybe because you saved the princess,” Bow offered, “and now we know Shadow Weaver was _trying_ to make you mean.”

“Yeah. Well. It worked,” Catra sighed, ears and tail drooping. “I remember my mom, now. She was the best. And I...”

“You know, my mom told me something after you rescued her,” Glimmer said, doing Catra’s one-armed hug thing. “When I...told her what I’d done. She said that I made mistakes. Then she told me something important. ‘We are more than our mistakes.’” Catra looked up in surprise. “‘Everyone makes mistakes, Glimmer. What matters most is what you do next.’”

“My mistakes are a lot worse than yours, Sparkles,” Catra grumbled.

Glimmer crossed her arms. “Um, nope. Used your friends? Almost got them killed? Risked blowing up the world once to prove you were right?” She sighed. “Listened to Shadow Weaver?”

Catra chuckled. “Hey, she was better at that than the magic.” She looked away. “Look, I don’t know about this adoption thing, but...I really want to find out more about Halfmoon. Where I came from, what that means...” she looked back up, feeling incredibly vulnerable. “...you guys understand, right?”

“Of course,” Bow insisted. Glimmer nodded.

“Outer space can wait,” Adora agreed. “From now on, we do this together.” Catra hugged Adora and purred.

Sir Tao rushed in, causing Catra to leap back and straighten. “Lady Catriska! We have caught intruders who managed to navigate the maze, and they claim to know you. By your...surface diminutive,” he added, not quite rolling his eyes.

“Uh-oh.” Catra rushed after Tao, the others trailing after her. _It’s gotta be them. Who else would be smart enough to get through the maze and stupid enough to think it’s a good idea?_

Once they reached the maze entrance that protected New Halfmoon, they found a dozen guards surrounding Scorpia, Entrapta, and Double Trouble. The soldiers pointed sword-staff weapons like Huntara’s, and glowing gauntlets, at the trio. Scorpia and DT had their hands up, while Entrapta had one hand and both pigtails in the air, while holding her recorder in her remaining hand. “Halfmoon log one. We have reached the entrance of New Halfmoon. The locals have _fascinating_ technology, and are suspicious of visitors for some reason – oh, hi, Catra!” Entrapta waved with a pigtail.

“We can explain, I assure you,” DT added, their smile wide and almost not nervous.

“Oh, gosh, I think we made a bad first impression,” Scorpia added. “Um, help?”

Catra couldn’t help it. She laughed. Somehow, finding them here felt like... _like things are going to be all right, somehow._ Adora smiled at her. Catra smiled back. _Maybe...they are._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why did I do this. WHY.
> 
> ...I wanted to get to Halfmoon sooner rather than later, but this took so long I could've probably gotten to the Turn Right version by now. Oh well, hopefully folks enjoy. I mean, angst with a happy ending? What are the chances?


	4. Menagerie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Since it’s going to take a while in “Turn Right,” Vultak finally gets his in this timeline. Also, lost friends are found, and an old shadow is confronted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Temporary character death.

“Hey, Double Trouble,” Catra drawled, staring with her arms crossed. _Stone interrogation room. Nice,_ she noted.

DT smiled back. “You look good, kitten.”

Catra’s smile vanished. “Call me that again, and we’ll find out if you can shapeshift a new face.”

DT swallowed, their smile wavering. “I’m sensing a dash of hostility here.”

“Blaming me for Hordak and Shadow Weaver, then telling me ‘it’s for your own good’? Yeah, just a bit,” Catra retorted.

Double Trouble blinked in both directions. “Kit–” Catra popped her claws. “You were driving away everyone you weren’t paying. Sure, Sparkles bribed me, but I–”

“Stop _pretending,”_ Catra snapped, slamming her claws into the table between them. DT jumped, shaken at last. “What I did to Adora and Scorpia was wrong, but Hordak and Shadow Weaver kidnapped and indoctrinated me as a child. Blaming me for all of them at the same time wasn’t trying to help. You wanted to destroy me. You twisted the knife and _enjoyed it!”_ Catra’s tail lashed, hands trembling.

Double Trouble was quiet for a few seconds. The two locked eyes. DT looked away first. “It was...a bit of both, but be honest, kit, you’re one to talk.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Catra growled. DT looked back at her in surprise. “No games, mercenary. No acting, no messing around, no ‘getting into the role.’ You brought Scorpia and Entrapta to soften me up.” DT did smile at that, just a fraction. “Why?”

“Fine, no foreplay,” DT sighed, rolling their eyes. “I need your help.” Catra raised an eyebrow. “So, maybe…I regret how things turned out. And there was something I didn’t tell you about Elberon.”

“Stop messing around and spill it,” Catra hissed.

DT looked at the table, and their shame seemed so real that Catra straightened, claws retracting. “Flutterina’s...a real person,” they admitted, one ear flicking. “Vultak has her. I want to rescue her, and I suspected you’d want to help, seeing as you’re one of the ‘heroes’ now.” They met her eyes again, expression cool and neutral. 

Catra scowled. “You can’t cry on cue,” she whispered. For the first time, she saw true fear in DT’s eyes, wide and vulnerable. “You imagine children falling. Sparkles and I had a lot of time to chat. So why do you care now?”

Double Trouble sighed. “Same as you, I suppose. Scorpia.” Catra’s tail stopped lashing. “I thought all those princess heroics were nonsense. Good for a laugh, and their egos, but not enough to stop me from taking their money. Then Scorpia stayed behind to save us. She knew she would be chipped...” DT ran delicate fingers through their hair. “...and, well, I heard about what you did. So now I have a conscience.” They threw their head back. “I hate it.”

Catra couldn’t help it. She laughed. DT’s smile looked almost genuine. “There,” they said. “No games, no ‘messing around.’ Send in Her Sorcerous Majesty if you don’t believe me. She has a way with truth spells.”

“If you’re being straight with me, then sure, I’m in,” Catra agreed, then forced her eyes to narrow. “If not, there’s a princess here, with powers from _two_ Runestones, who thinks she owes me.” Catra walked out before Double Trouble could unnerve her even more.

“So?” Glimmer asked, the group of princesses (plus Bow) waiting in the observation room. DT smirked at the illusory wall. “Do you think they’re telling the truth?”

Catra grimaced. “Yeah,” she admitted. “If it’s my fault that Vultak has a _kid,_ there’s no way I’m going to let that slide. Even if it’s not...I want to do some good that isn’t just fixing my messes, and Flutterina’s the only part of this that’s on me.”

“What if it’s a trap?” Adora asked, fingers twitching. Catra could almost see the light of her new Sword between them.

“Then we spring it back on the buzzard,” Catra replied. “Problem is, I’m too close to this. Does anyone else think Double Trouble’s telling the truth? I wasn’t sure they knew how.”

Scorpia and Adora both snorted chuckles. “I kinda do, actually,” Scorpia said, rubbing the back of her neck. Which looked weird with a claw. “They seemed pretty sincere when they came to us for help.” She indicated Entrapta and herself with a gesture.

“Just let me use a truth spell,” Glimmer cut in, punching her palm. Catra couldn’t help a slight smile. “Like they said, it’s worked on them before.”

“I appreciate it, Sparkles,” Catra admitted, “but I’m trying to be better here. If Deety’s trying too, I don’t want to throw them off.” She hesitated, then looked at Adora.

The big dork gazed back with a joy that almost literally gleamed in her eyes. Then Adora cleared her throat and straightened, doing her best ‘I am serious’ look. “Okay. Scorpia’s got good instincts when it comes to people.”

“Except me,” Catra muttered.

Adora ‘hmmph’ed at her while Scorpia deflated. “Catra, you pushed her away because she saw the good in you, and after I abandoned you, that scared you.” Catra stared – _Stars, when did you get good at that?_ she wondered – while Adora continued. “Besides, I agree with her. I think Double Trouble’s sincere for once. I don’t think even the actor in them would let them look vulnerable otherwise.” She glared at the door. “Besides, we can take precautions for if we’re wrong.” Felicia and Glimmer shared a look, nodding to each other.

“Then let’s bring Their Sparkly Royal Majesties in on this,” Catra said, scratching her chin with one claw. “I wanted to bring down Vultak anyway. This hostage thing just moves him up the priority list.”

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Angella stared at Claudus’ report, caught between hope and horror. _A child princess, in the hands of that vile monster. Peekablue, his captive for sixteen years. And yet – both alive. We can still save them._ Determination like steel forged itself in her spine. _I will. I must!_ She looked at the Horde defectors. “Have you some plan, Adora, Catra?”

Adora glanced at Catra. The magicat tried not to react, but her ears pivoted up and she purred ever so faintly. Sir Percival looked like he could float away, puffed with pride as he was. “Apparently, Vultak’s obsessed with you, Your Majesty,” Catra began.

“That’s putting it mildly,” Micah rumbled. Angella twined her fingers in his.

Catra’s smirk was sour. “Double Trouble wants to help. So, they disguise themselves as Angella, and I take ‘her’ in as my prisoner. My cover story is that I’ve given up on the good guy thing, and giving you to him is proof I’m still evil.”

“You were never _evil–”_ Adora objected.

“Tell that to the sea elf with one leg,” Catra retorted. Adora took in a breath to retort, humming with frustration.

Angella clapped once before they could spiral. “A philosophical debate for another time. Lady Catra?” she prodded.

Adora grimaced, making her cheeks bulge. Catra huffed, tail twitching, as she continued. “Point is, Melog brings in backup under their cloak.” She let herself smile again as the alien symbiote nuzzled against her hand. “We find out what he’s up to, Entrapta shorts out the collars in Menagerie Tower, Adora calms them down with her ‘animals love me’ magic, and the rest of us rescue princesses and stomp bird brains.”

“That shouldn’t take long,” Glimmer said, fists shimmering. Felicia smirked, stone floating around one hand and flame burning in the other.

Catra looked at them both with a grim, sharp-edged glared. _I see how this woman claimed such high rank in the Horde as a child,_ Angella noted. “Do not underestimate Vultak,” Catra warned. “He was Hordak’s best strategist before me, and on normal days is nastier than me at my worst. His second, Force Captain Styrax, is a stone-cold professional. Scorpia’s old squadmates Dylamug and Callix ran to him, and they’re both stupidly tough.” Scorpia sighed, tail drooping. “Half the Horde loyalists flocked to him, pun intended,” she added, a touch of her old smirk returning, “and until we free Vultak’s beasts, they make his tower just about invincible.”

The others stared for a long moment. Then Bow smiled. “Pfft. Sounds like a normal day for the Best Friends Squad.”

“Yeah! Don’t worry, Catra, we’ve got this.” Adora gave Catra a gentle shoulder nudge, eliciting a genuine, if thin, smile from the magicat.

Angella took a deep breath. _They are not going to like this,_ she thought, steeling herself. “A sound plan, Catra. I have but a single amendment.” That turned all attention toward her. “I cannot allow anyone to risk Vultak’s...interest in my person. I will be your ‘prisoner’ from the start.”

There was a single beat of open-mouthed disbelief from all save her beloved Micah, who facepalmed. An instant later, the table became a cacophony of objection. Angella clapped once, bringing the outcry to a halt. “I do not recall bringing this up for debate,” the queen pointed out. “I have history with Vultak. It is time for me to face it, and him.”

“Angie,” Micah began.

“Relax, angel-dad, it’s not happening,” Catra cut in, glaring and crossing her arms. “I did not lose six pounds rescuing you just to let Vultak get his vampire hands on you.” Adora quivered, eyes flickering from love to queen.

Angella regarded the (heartsick, fearless) magicat with all the imperious command won over twenty millennia. “And how, precisely, do you intend to overrule me, Lady Catra?”

“I’ll do it alone,” Catra riposted, and Adora turned ghost-pale, “if I have to. I can get there before you.” Her expression softened at the queen’s slight flinch. “You can go cloaked with Melog, Your Majesty. If this is personal, I get–”

“I assure you, Catra, I am rather faster than you suspect,” Angella replied. Catra’s ears went flat. “I _will_ do this.”

“Mom, this is crazy!” Glimmer blurted. Bow gripped her hand. “I mean, it’s Double Trouble, we literally pay them to do this.”

“He’ll know,” Catra whispered, forcing herself not to bare her teeth. “If we go in there and I don’t have your powers locked down with, like, a drug or Entrapta gear or something, Vultak will _know._ And if you’re powerless – you can’t do this.” Her ferocity melted away, revealing a vulnerable youth that almost broke Angella’s heart again. “please.”

Angella closed her eyes. She could almost see the First Alliance – Ivy and Mercia playing a prank on Crystal destined to backfire (again), Bee sparring with then-Captain Juliet, both women grinning, Micah going on about his latest spell design to...

...Peekablue, the young seer’s eyes alight with joy and hope...

“Bee insisted that Peekablue was alive,” Angella explained. “I believed no one could have survived her final battle. It is my fault she has spent half a lifetime as Vultak’s prisoner, that Bee left us to save her beloved, that we were blind to Shadow Weaver’s schemes when we needed sight most.” Her hands were shaking. Angella stilled them and opened her eyes. “I, I must do this. I _must.”_

Micah sighed. “Trust me, no one here wants Angie to do this less than I do, but when she’s made up her mind, that’s the end of it.” He looked at Catra. “How many people can your friend Melog cloak?”

“At least six, plus themselves,” Catra grumped, frowning. “That’s what we had in Mystacor.”

“Okay. I learned to move quietly on...so I’m going,” Micah said. As much as Angella wanted him on the other side of Etheria from Vultak, she couldn’t help the relief – and love – she felt.

“Me too,” Glimmer insisted, arms crossed. Catra raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

Bow looked from Glimmer to Adora, eyes tight with worry. “I’ll be fine, Bow. I’ll have Swifty,” Adora assured him.

“I’ll go with the blonde,” Felicia said with a fierce nod. Then she grinned. “Someone’s got to keep Catra’s girlfriend safe.”

Catra looked over the team, then sighed. “Okay. I’ll have Double Trouble infiltrate as a random guard or something. Having to ‘play an extra’ will help prove their sincerity.” Her eyes flickered. “So. I have a really important question.” The others looked at her, curious. “Does anyone else here trust Hordak?”

A single beat. A cacophony of objection. Angella, to her own surprise, smiled. _This is not the nightmare’s beginning. This is its final act._ Her smile faded with the argument. _I will never leave anyone behind again._

-SR- -SR- -SR-

Catra’s heart pounded like a factory piston. Angella trailed half a step behind and beside her, wrists manacled behind her connected to a collar, all glowing with something Entrapta called an “optical feedback loop.” _I know what each word means,_ Catra thought, the two of them seeming alone in the ascending elevator, _but when Entrapta puts something together, it doesn’t make sense._

She bit back a sigh, forcing herself to look fierce and heartbroken. _It just works. If it doesn’t explode._

Vultak’s elevator had a glass wall for one reason – to show off his ‘collection.’ Fearsome beasts from across Etheria rattled cages, snarled at their neighbors, or curled on straw, up and down the enormous tower. A giant beetle from the Whispering Woods chittered at a two-headed Crimson Waste serpent. A pair of Takdryl huddled close to each other as they watched a four-winged serpent creature drink. In the center of the tower, a silvery creature that looked like the images of dragons Adora had shown her from Brightmoon’s library twined around a pole in the center of its tube-shaped cage. All of it was in the familiar Horde green, metal plates and rivets, the only difference being that the prisons had bars as well as force walls.

 _“Fear not,”_ Melog said in her mind. _“We are with you.”_

Melog did another one of their magic things, and she could see Sparkles, Bow, King Micah, and Hordak (of all people) standing there around and behind her friend. _Yeah. Sure. Remind me to tell Bow not to call you a ‘pet’ after all this, okay?_

Melog paused. _“No,”_ they replied.

That brought a smile to Catra’s face, just in time for the doors to open and take it away.

Vultak stood before a mess of comm screens much like the one Catra had destroyed after losing Scorpia, with the wall-sized window behind them opening to the enormous shaft of the ten-story menagerie. A host of creatures both familiar and strange chittered and snarled below them.

That, unfortunately, was the least of their problems. The command center was almost the size of Hordak’s throne room, and it held four dozen soldiers – half Etherian Horde, half Prime clones. The muscular Styrax, cyborg Dylamug with his face in his chest, and the stone-skinned Callix stood in front of a cell. Angella shuddered at the sight of it, but Catra only caught quick glimpses of two figures, one tall and blue, the other short and pink. _Flutterina,_ Catra realized, suppressing her own shiver, _and the queen’s friend Peekablue, probably._

The biggest problems, aside from Vultak himself, were those around him. A muscular member of Double Trouble’s species was to one side, wearing purple Horde armor and armed with a mini-flamethrower, while a stunning winged woman with clawed feet was on the other, horns like a crown peeking through her hair. She leered a smirk at Angella. _What was that saying Sparkles said to her dad about Light Spinner? Something about beauty only being a surface thing._ Meanwhile, on different screens, there were two guys in white Galactic Horde outfits, one a massive green amphibian with webbing between his fingers, the other a much thinner crimson figure with four legs, enormous ears, and eyes literally extending out of their sockets.

Vultak smirked without turning. “Ah, Commander Catra, so good of you to join us.” He gestured to the screens. “You won’t have met Leech or Mantenna, of Prime’s Beloved. With me are False Face and Princess Hunga.” The winged lady turned a more friendly (if still sickening) smile on Catra before turning her attention back to Angella.

“Vultak. Styrax.” Catra nodded to them, then gave Angella’s tether as gentle a tug as she dared while trying to look uncaring. Then she froze, unable to hold back a chuckle. “Wait, ‘Beloved,’ like with a capital letter? That’s a Horde title?”

Vultak’s smile vanished. “Being one of Horde Prime’s Beloved is the _highest_ rank, and honor.” Catra’s smile followed Vultak’s, her tail lashing. “Aid us in restoring His glory, and we can welcome you once more.”

 _True believer,_ Catra realized. _Oboy._ She swallowed, not bothering to hide her nerves. “Right,” she muttered. “So what’s the plan? We have like two hours before Adora shows up with every princess on Etheria.”

“Monster!” Flutterina sobbed. Catra was proud that only one ear twitched, given that she felt gutted.

Vultak smirked again. “The great strategist Catra has no plan?” he asked.

“One: you don’t trust me. Two: you knew I was coming. Three: you know the forces on-site. My plan A involves orbital bombardment, but you haven’t done that, so we can’t,” Catra ticked off, meeting Vultak’s eyes with her most piercing glare. “Besides, you’ve got the monsters, but they’re still in their cages, so you’ve got something up your sleeve.”

The others stared. Mantenna’s jaw dropped a fraction. Vultak laughed. “You don’t disappoint, Commander.” With a flourish, he yanked a cloth off a platform, revealing...a bowl? “I’ll take Angella. Place your hands on the bowl, and become a goddess to rival She-Ra.”

Catra snorted. “Right,” she snarked, tugging Angella behind her as she approached the platform. “Tell you what. I’ll ‘become a goddess’ first, _then_ you get Angella.” She looked into the bowl to find it filled with liquid darkness. “What the f–”

White eyeslits formed in the darkness – and then olive green circles with lines in them, one an inverted V, the other an L with a point at the corner–

– _broken eyes._ “WHAT THE F–” Catra gasped. “Shadow Weaver?!” She flared her claws three times.

 _“I just need a little more time!”_ Entrapta reported in Catra’s ear. Bow whimpered; fortunately, the Horde didn’t notice.

Too shaken to be relieved Entrapta had recognized the signal, Catra whirled on Vultak. “Explain. NOW!”

“As soon as you give me Angella,” Vultak sneered, holding out one hand. The other heavy hitters moved in, circling. _Just gotta stall, that’s the plan,_ Catra reminded herself, glaring back. “When I have her, you gain everything you desire.”

 _I already have everything I want,_ Catra rumbled, letting the growl form in her throat, _and way more than I deserve._ Instead, she held up the end of the leash. The gasps of the Horde goons at the sight of the button on the handle made Catra feel slightly less of a monster. She held her thumb over the button. “Yep. Quick release. One push, and you’re fighting an immortal angel queen.”

“She can’t take all of us!” Hunga screeched.

Catra gritted her teeth at the awful voice. “She held off the Horde’s best army – mine – by herself. So yeah, she can.”

“Catra?” Shadow Weaver gasped, a sound like rustling branches.

Vultak’s eyes narrowed. “You have all nine of your lives,” he admitted, glancing at Leech, then back. “You give us one, and we bring back Shadow Weaver.”

“You mustn’t, Catriska!” Peekablue cried.

“Silence, princeling!” Vultak snapped, making a fist snarled in shadow. Peekablue whimpered and fell back, Flutterina gasping and standing between Vultak and Peekablue, arms outstretched.

The _déjà vu_ from Catra’s childhood almost overwhelmed her, until another struck her – a memory shaken loose: _“You could have had everything. All you had to do was swallow your pride and give Adora a chance.”_

Catra almost unraveled on the spot. _She – she called me Void-Catra – no! Not now._ Peekablue’s sobs brought Catra back to her reality. _He's hurting – and misgendering, apparently – his prisoners. Do the job._ She turned her attenton back to Vultak. “Now tell me the rest,” she demanded, wiggling her thumb over the button.

“Resurrection magic is the most dangerous in the universe, more than even time travel, because Death herself stands against it,” Vultak ground out, the circle of Horde heavies closing around them. “Yet Prime is eternal, and Shadow Weaver is bound to the...shadow He left behind.”

Angella gasped. “The Spell of Obtainment,” she whispered. “The Shakarran Horror–”

Vultak’s sneer returned. “Indeed. Only the gift of a magicat can safely bridge Life and Death,” he explained, “and young Catra, with eight to spare, need only donate two. One to restore Shadow Weaver as a lifeline, and the other, to cast out all other shadows.”

Unable to resist, even given the stakes, Catra strode to the bowl and met the eyes within. She let her pain and madness off its leash, laughing her grief free. “My care-taker,” she mocked, glaring. “You took care from me.”

“I know,” Shadow Weaver rasped back, her voice still only half-real.

Catra froze. “What?” she breathed.

“I...saw the truth too late,” Shadow Weaver admitted. “I could have had daughters, but only sought weapons.”

Angella glared at the eyes while Catra shuddered. “This is a trick,” she snapped, the claws of her free hand flaring. “You’re trying to use me again, get me to lower my guard so you can....” She reached for where a tuft had been.

“The spell requires a living body,” Shadow Weaver explained. Vultak’s eyes bulged while Hunga hissed. “A Bubastis can provide a lifeline, but Death demands balance from magic.”

“Why…would you tell me that?” Catra whispered.

“So you will believe me when I tell you...I am sorry, my child.” The eyes looked away at last. “I am so very sorry.”

“She’s telling the truth,” Peekablue groaned.

“Why were you proud of me?” Catra begged.

“Because I tried to turn you into me,” Shadow Weaver explained, “but you transcended your suffering where I surrendered. I hurt you, because of your mother, because you were like me, because you were _better_ than me, because you equaled Adora when I myself could never match the gifted.” Oily tears formed in the liquid. “I hated myself, and hurt you for it, and you refused to be ruined.”

“You were a monster,” Angella snapped.

Shadow Weaver laughed, bitter and empty. “An insult to monsters, Angella.” The queen stared, gaping.

“Use my body,” Catra said. Everyone, even the Horde commanders, froze. “We’ll – we’ll figure something out, magic, tech, _anything–”_

“FOR THE HONOR OF GRAYSKULL!” Adora cried, her desperation and power roaring through Menagerie Tower.

Cursing, Catra crushed the button, freeing Angella. Angella flew at Vultak with a cry so fierce, Catra thought the scream alone would knock him out. Hunga whirled to help, but the others decloaked, and Micah hit her with his triple-ring blast. Glimmer dove into the clone platoon with fierce glee, while Bow caught Styrax in a net arrow. Hordak emerged in front of the Etherian Horde soldiers, halting them with a glare. False Face aimed his flamethrower at Catra, but Double Trouble leaped at him, the two shapeshifters becoming a blur of living arsenals.

 _No time to be impressed._ Melog leaped to Catra’s side, and together they charged Dylamug and Callix, bowl in one arm and a stun baton in her free hand. “Entrapta tell me you’ve got it!” she blurted.

Lights flickered around them, and Entrapta cackled with joy. “I think that’s a yes?” Scorpia reported, and howls echoed from shattering cages.

“Great!” Catra dodged a blow from Dylamug, sticking her stolen baton in one shoulder, then slicing through the other with her claws. Melog knocked Callix aside with a bull rush at maximum size. “Slag it, Adora, this was not the plan!”

“Neither was giving yourself to _SHADOW WEAVER!”_ Adora wailed, her golden light tearing through the menagerie ceiling. Every flying beast soared free, except the silver dragon. That creature latched onto the massive window, staring at Melog.

Melog’s eyes and mane glowed the same silver. _“Her name is Silver Storm,”_ they explained. _“She has taught me some of her power in thanks, and hopes we meet again.”_ Melog grew silver wings from their mane.

Leech teleported into the room with more clones. “Hordak!” he roared, snarling with fangs Catra envied. “Traitor!” Hordak replied by forming his cannon around one hand and firing. Leech held up a hand, absorbing the beam. Hordak scowled.

 _No time,_ Catra decided, using Melog max-size-headbutt move to throw Dylamug aside, then freed Peekablue and Flutterina with a massive claw swipe. “Sweet Bee! You’re on!”

Peekablue’s eyes went wide. “Bee?” she whispered. Then a woman seeming made of golden armor, with bronze talons and crimson eyes, smashed through the wall. Her wings seemed more wasp-like as she swooped over and scooped up Peekablue, carrying the sobbing princess away.

Flutterina’s smile was as wide as Adora’s. “You tricked them! Peekie was right!”

Catra shrunk back to her normal size. “Yeah. Sorry, kid, I swear I didn’t know...” One ear twitched. Leech drew a beam cannon and aimed at Flutterina. Catra grew to full size again, covering the girl with her body just in time to absorb the blow.

_Ow._

-SR- -SR- -SR-

“Catra! _“Catra!”_ Adora charged through clones and bots, grateful that the Etherian Horde soldiers just scattered at the sight of her. Felicia and Percival leaped in behind her, watching her back with familiar grace that made her heart ache.

The Leech guy turned from Melog’s prone form, about a dozen Andreenids fallen around them. His hands glowed like Melog’s mane in crimson. “The She-Ra,” he growled. “I was made to defeat you.”

“You’re months too late,” Adora snapped, charging. Leech darted in, grabbing her shoulder and abdomen. She-Ra knocked him aside, but golden light joined the red around his hands, and hints of weakness threaded through Adora’s might.

“Your magicat is dead,” Leech hissed. “Even she will not come back from a lost heart.” Felicia screamed and prepared to leap, while Adora’s heart stopped–

Catra screamed.

Most of the remaining combatants froze as the wound through Catra’s chest un-collapsed, the damage rewinding like reversed film. A miniature Shadow Weaver made of darkness formed in the bowl. “Catra!” Flutterina cried, hugging the again-breathing love of Adora’s life.

“Ow,” Catra grunted. “Sparkles! Kid evac!” Glimmer teleported over, grabbing Flutterina’s shoulder and disappearing with her. “Seriously, _ow.”_ Then she turned a terrifying smile on Leech. “Well look at that. One life. One body. Perfect.”

“Catra, no,” Shadow Weaver insisted.

Catra bristled. Adora tensed. “I...don’t...” Catra swallowed. “...want you to leave.” Leech’s eyes flickered from magicat to bowl.

“The end of everything could not sever the bond you two share,” Shadow Weaver sighed, “but sometimes, you truly must let go. I am dead, Catra.” The darkness thinned, becoming gray mist. “Bury me.”

Catra knelt before the bowl. Leech roared and charged. She-Ra formed a hammer from the Swordlight and knocked him into a wall. Leech teleported away. “Thank you,” Catra whispered. Then, with a fierce cry, she shattered the artifact.

Shadow Weaver was gone. For good, this time.

Melog stirred and stood, nuzzling against Catra. Adora held her love while she silently wept.

-SR- -SR- -SR-

“It’s official!” Scorpia insisted, hugging Double Trouble. “We’re the Super Pal Quartet!”

Catra smiled at DT’s long-suffering eyeroll, then watched in amazement while Hordak and Angella – _together_ – herded the captured Horde forces onto Darla. “This is not the end!” Vultak howled, struggling in Micah’s sorcerous grip. “Prime sees all! Prime knows all! You have chosen shadow, and Prime casts out all–”

Calm, noble King Micah zapped Vultak with his staff. “Oops,” he said, smiling innocently as the buzzard collapsed into bee soldiers’ arms.

Adora nudged Catra with her shoulder. “Hey,” Adora said, offering her a smile. “You okay?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know.” Catra shrank in on herself. Percival rubbed her back, eliciting a faint purr. “She was sorry, Adora.”

“You tried to save her,” Micah replied, leaning on his staff. “More than once. Light Spinner did this to herself.”

“I...did terrible things too,” Catra whispered. “Why me and not her?”

“Because she erased your memory,” Felicia retorted, “and tried to make her like you, and you _actually changed_ anyway?”

Angella took Micah’s hand. “After all Shadow Weaver did to you, Catra, you gave her peace,” she said, smiling at them. Catra’s tail lashed. “You have earned your own.”

Catra looked away. “Have I?” she asked.

Angella stepped aside, drawing Micah with her and gesturing to the field around them. “You tell me,” the queen said. Netossa and Spinnerella were hugging Peekablue and Sweet Bee, the four chattering with excitement. Flutterina spoke with Glimmer at warp speed, their smiles shining like Etheria’s new sun. All around them, prisoners sentient and bestial reveled in their freedom, cheering, weeping, and dancing both on foot and in the sky. “This was the last blot of Horde oppression on Etheria. Many helped, but you stood at the heart of this pain and gave everything – even life – to heal it, and us.”

Adora scowled. “That reminds me.” She put her hand on Catra’s chest and glowed. Catra gasped as her ninth life returned to her. “Never do that again!”

Catra held her uncle and her love, purring. “No promises,” she quipped anyway. Adora sighed. “Adora...thank you. For being there.”

“Hey, does this mean we can have our Best Friend Squad Space Adventure?” Bow asked, bubbling over with...Bow-ness.

“Once her adoption is complete,” Felicia grumbled, arms crossed.

“And they foster her to Brightmoon!” Glimmer added, laughing. “Right, _Princess_ Catra?” Catra groaned. _Seriously. These people._

“And I have the perfect place to start!” Entrapta cheered, rushing over (and hugging Hordak with one pigtail) and calling up a hologram of several worlds orbiting a star like the moons around Etheria. “This is our solar system.” She pointed at one planet with her free pigtail. “This is Etheria. And this planet,” she continued, pointing at the next planet in, “is called _Eternia!”_

There was only one thing to say, so everyone said it: “WHAT?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Yep, this Catra is Void-Catra. That's why I took "Canon-Compliant" off the tags forever ago.
> 
> 2) I imagine the Beloved as Horde Prime's Black Order. Seriously, he must have had *some* governors that weren't him.
> 
> 3) Funny story -- one version of Horde Prime is basically Lucifer, torn in half after his rebellion against heaven. Only his spirit remains free, hence the whole body-hopping schtick. And, well, the Spell of Obtainment monster was just *right there*...
> 
> 4) Double Trouble can cry on cue now. ;-)
> 
> 5) Eternia will probably be the last stop for this fic, except maybe for an epilogue if I ever get TR Catra to a point where she can meet this Catra again.


End file.
